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THE BIBLE THROUGH 
THE CENTURIES 







THE BIBLE THROUGH 


THE CENTURIES 


By HERBERT L. WILLETT < 



Willett, Clark & Colby Publishers 

Chicago: 440 South Dearborn Street 
New York : too Fifth Avenue 








Copyright 1919 by 
WILLETT, CLARK & COLBY' 


Manufactured in The U. S. A. by The Plimpton Press 
Norwood, Mass.-LaPorte, Ind. 


SEP 27 1929 


\ 


©CU 13712/ 

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CONTENTS 


I . THE WORLD BEFORE THE BIBLE . 7 
II . THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BIBLE . l6 
III . THE PROPHETS AND THEIR WRITINGS . 28 
IV . THE GREAT PROPHETS AND THE DECLINE OF PROPHECY . 42 
V . PRIESTLY ACTIVITIES AND LITERATURE . 6l 
VI . THE SAGES AND THE WISDOM WRITINGS . 77 
VII . THE PRAYERS AND PRAISES OF ISRAEL . 87 
VIII . BIBLICAL ROMANCES . 102 
IX . THE LITERATURE OF APOCALYPSE . II4 
X . THE MAKING AND REMAKING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT . 126 
XI . ISRAEL AND THE MONUMENTS . I49 
XII . RISE AND LITERATURE OF JUDAISM . l8l 
XIII . OTHER SACRED BOOKS . 205 
XIV . THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT . 220 
XV . BIBLICAL CRITICISM . 246 
XVI . TRANSLATIONS AND REVISIONS OF THE BIBLE . 265 
XVII . THE INSPIRATION AND AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE . 2 jg 
XVIII . THE CONTINUING WORD . 3OO.— 


BIBLIOGRAPHY . 325 
INDEXES . 329 
















THE BIBLE THROUGH 
THE CENTURIES 








A WORD WITH THE READER 


This is not intended as an introduction or a preface or 
even a foreword. Each of these might be interesting, but 
the purpose here is a confidential talk with those who are 
to read this book as to its nature and purpose. No one 
will ever be able to speak the final word regarding the 
Bible, but any contribution to the increase of knowledge 
regarding it is worth while. From any point of view 
there is profit and enjoyment in the reading and study 
of this great collection of writings. To make the most 
of such opportunities as one possesses is an enterprise of 
vital importance. 

The Bible is easily one of the great books of the world. 
Probably no one would dispute that statement. Every 
church in Christendom uses the Bible as its sacred book, 
the basis of its teaching, and the inspiration for its message. 
The Bible is found in great numbers of homes, perhaps not 
as universally as once when other books were rarer, but at 
least it is probable that the majority of homes in the lands 
where Christianity prevails have copies of the Scriptures. 
It is an interesting fact that an organization of Christian 
traveling men has undertaken to provide a Bible for every 
hotel room in America. The Bible is the most widely cir¬ 
culated book in the world. The presses of the American 
Bible Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society 
never stop. In every land there are depots for its distribu- 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


tion in all the languages used by the native populations. 
Every library that is competently organized has copies of 
the Bible. Because of these facts and many others that 
might be cited regarding the wide distribution of the 
Scriptures, they are regarded by the Christian world as 
the most significant and sacred volume in existence. 

To be sure, the Bible is not the only sacred book in the 
world. There are few religions among the many that have 
flourished through all history and are now widely scattered 
over the continents that do not possess something in the 
way of a sacred literature. It is inevitable that this should 
be the case. The founders and early teachers of any faith 
are likely to leave some writings, or at least to inspire their 
followers and interpreters to write out some of the things 
they have said. These books become classic and authori¬ 
tative with the confessors of such religions. They may even 
claim divine inspiration for their utterances, as is the case 
with several of them. So the Bible takes its place along 
with a number of other works of religious character. Its 
relation to these other bibles can only be determined upon 
an examination of the contents of all and an effort to under¬ 
stand in what degree one outranks another. 

It seems wise to start- our consideration of the Bible 
with no assumption as to its superiority, but with an earnest 
desire to know what it is, how it came to be, what claims 
it makes for itself, and what its influence has been upon 
the people who have used it. Probably most of those who 
regard the Bible as a holy book would be unsatisfied with 
its assignment to the general collection of religious literature. 
Many would demand that it be given at once the supreme 


— 2 — 




A Word with the Reader 


place among religious writings, outranking all others. Per¬ 
haps they might even insist that the consideration of any 
other books as sacred in comparison with the Bible is an 
act of irreverence. 

It is thought, however, that the best method of de¬ 
termining the place and value of the Bible among the 
sacred books of the world is to be discovered not upon any 
preconceived grounds but rather in view of the facts which 
the Bible itself sets forth and the results of its study through 
the centuries. 

The Bible is not a perfect book. The fact that it is the 
product of human hands and human minds would be 
sufficient reason for such a conclusion. It presents frankly 
the beliefs of the men who composed it and of their con¬ 
temporaries. It is not a textbook on history, not even 
upon the history of the small nation of the Hebrews with 
which it deals, though it is the most important source for 
the study of that history. Nor does it present a complete 
picture of the early Christian communities. Yet, of course, 
it is chiefly concerned with the Hebrew religion and the 
teachings of Jesus Christ. It is not final in its morality. It 
reveals in its earlier sections conditions which have long 
since been passed in the growth of ethical and religious 
ideals. Usually it presents these low conditions of human 
society without comment or criticism. It leaves its readers 
to draw their own conclusions regarding the conditions it 
describes. Its religious teachings are not compact and 
definitive. They are rather diverse and progressive. The 
Bible pictures the progress of human life under the leader¬ 
ship of moral and spiritual teachers from very low begin- 

— 3 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


nings up to the supreme standards set forth by the Man 
of Nazareth. 

Why then is the Bible so important a document in the 
history of culture and worship? What is the justification 
of those who call it the world’s supreme book on morals 
and religion? Several reasons may be given: 

It is the classic of the western world of Christendom. 
It contains the surviving records of a remarkable people, the 
Hebrews, and of a small and early portion of the most 
significant movement in history, the Christian society. It 
presents some of the outstanding personalities of the ages — 
prophets, teachers, apostles — and particularly one, the 
central figure in the religious life of the world, Jesus Christ. 
It gives the two most impressive chapters in the history of 
religion, the Old Testament and the New Testament. It 
contains some of the most attractive writings in all literature, 
though it lays no claim to literary excellence. There are 
no more beautiful passages in any literature than some to 
be found in the Scriptures. The book of Job is a master¬ 
piece among the great poems of the world. Many of the 
Psalms are lyrics of exquisite charm. The prophetic books 
contain sections of majesty and impressiveness unsurpassed 
by any other writings. 

It is worth much to know something of this book and 
the setting in which it took form, as well as the process of 
its growth. 

The Bible has been surrounded and overladen with 
many traditions and superstitions. No book has suffered 
more from misuse by its friends and its enemies. Perhaps 
the best means of freeing it from these entanglements is 


4 — 





A Word with the Reader 


to attempt to answer some of the plain questions which 
arise in the mind of any intelligent person regarding it. 

The present volume is not an elaborate treatise upon 
the Bible. The literature which is available upon this 
subject is abundant and adequate. Perhaps that very 
abundance has proved something of a barrier to a satisfactory 
knowledge of its nature and contents by the average reader. 
Where so much is said, there is danger that too little is 
appropriated. But some competent knowledge of the Bible 
is essential to even an average education. In the various 
translations we have, the book is a classic of English litera¬ 
ture. It is the foundation of law and custom among 
Christian nations. It teaches the great facts and principles 
of the Christian faith. It has exerted a profound influence 
through all the centuries since its beginnings. No intelli¬ 
gent person can be insensitive to such a book or indifferent 
to its claims upon his regard. 

But particularly is the Bible interesting in this genera¬ 
tion because of the new light thrown upon its pages from 
many angles. The new sciences of archaeology, exploration, 
excavation, comparative history and religion have revealed 
a new world of interest in which the Bible has a conspicuous 
place. The soil of the lands of the Bible is being turned 
over in a successful search for evidence regarding the cen¬ 
turies in which the book was produced. The geography 
of biblical lands is a modern and stimulating study. The 
political conditions of the nations about ancient Israel and of 
the Roman empire throw fresh light upon Old and New 
Testament times. Historical names mentioned in the Bible, 
that once sounded remote and half mythical, have moved 


-5 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


into the light as knowledge of the Orient has increased. 
They have become familiar and authentic. 

Everyone knows something about the Bible. But there 
are multitudes who have no satisfactory knowledge of its 
nature and purpose. People are asking many questions re¬ 
garding it, questions which can be answered easily with a 
moderate amount of study of its contents. Among such 
questions are these: Who wrote it? When was it written? 
In what language was it written ? For what people was it 
written? How did the process of its composition begin? 
How has it come down the centuries to us? Those who 
are trying to find out something more adequate regarding 
it are an increasing number. A new generation comes on 
that knows little about the beliefs and traditions of former 
times and must be given an opportunity to understand the 
Bible in the language and with the methods best suited to 
this age. Alike to those to whom the Bible is the most 
precious of possessions and those who have but a vague 
and wistful attitude toward it, it is of importance that the 
main facts regarding it should be set forth simply and in 
accessible form. 

Probably most people have a feeling that they would 
like to know more about this remarkable book which has 
had such a place in the history of civilization and of religion. 
The present volume is designed to assist the reader in gain¬ 
ing such a knowledge of the background and nature of the 
Bible as shall answer the outstanding questions which sug¬ 
gest themselves regarding it. 


-6- 





I 

THE WORLD BEFORE THE BIBLE 

It is natural that people should think of the Bible as a 
very old book, if not the oldest in the world. The reasons 
for this are many. It has a venerable place in western 
civilization, that area of the world which we know in 
general as Christendom. It is revered in all the churches 
as the authentic word of God, and those who are accustomed 
to worship or who have any contact with the church are 
likely to regard it with a measure of reverence which is 
closely associated with the thought of antiquity. More than 
this, from time to time one sees in the libraries and museums 
old copies of the Bible with dates going back to the early 
stages of the art of printing. There are many versions of 
the Bible in the English language which possess this quality 
of age and leave the impression of a long history. Beyond 
this fact, most informed people know that the Bible was 
not written in English, but in older languages, the Hebrew 
and the Greek. Its two main divisions, the Old Testament 
and the New, were composed in these tongues. Any such 
association with ancient languages produces the impression 
of a remote origin, and the entire literary history of the 
Bible, through various ancient versions, adds to this im¬ 
pression of antiquity. It is not strange, therefore, that the 
Bible should seem to most people to be a very ancient 
document. 


-7 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


That idea is still further suggested by the fact that 
until recent times the entire history of the world was thought 
to cover only a few thousand years at the most. In the days 
when the origin of the world was placed by the accepted 
chronology about six thousand years in the past, it was 
easy to conceive of the Bible as covering most of those 
early centuries of human history. The world was very 
small in the days of our ancestors. Not very much was 
known regarding the far lands of the Orient. Most of the 
popular knowledge possessed came from the Bible, with 
its limitation of view to the regions lying immediately 
east of the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, until the days of 
Columbus and the discovery of America the Mediterranean 
was the central basin of history, and most of the currents 
of human life passed around and across it. The people who 
wrote the Bible lived in that region and thought in terms 
of a relatively small world whose duration had only covered 
three or four thousand years. 

So far as the New Testament is concerned, its compo¬ 
sition lay much nearer to our own time. It is less than 
two thousand years old. In comparison with it, the Old 
Testament seems to run back into dim antiquity and 
at first thought it appears to date almost from primeval 
time. 

In reality, however, the place of the Bible in the total 
history of civilization is comparatively recent. As historical 
and archaeological inquiries push back the limits of human 
life upon this planet into periods five or six thousand years 
before the Christian era, and all subsequent history measures 
but a few centuries at most, it is easy to see that the place 


-8- 






The World Before the Bible 


of the Bible in the total story of literature is really quite 
late and modern. It is plain that in comparison with the 
long stretches of partly recorded history that preceded it, 
and of that incalculable and unrecorded period when 
humanity was emerging from the earlier stages of life, we 
have in these documents a rather modern collection. Some¬ 
thing of the ancient feeling of the Bible is no doubt due 
to the fact that it undertook to supply the missing links 
between the beginnings of humanity and the origins of 
the Hebrew nation. Those early chapters of Genesis that 
make this effort succeed admirably in producing the 
impression of an actual recital of primeval events, and 
thus they bring down to the very threshold of Hebrew 
national life the story of creation and the beginnings 
of human culture. This fact gives to the book of 
Genesis an undoubted value which the more formal rec¬ 
ords, such as archaeology and history afford, could not 
offer. 

The real story of the Bible covers about sixteen hundred 
years, from the fifteenth century before Christ down to 
the end of the first hundred years of the Christian era. The 
emigrations of Semitic clans from their Babylonian home; 
the settlements in Canaan, and the expansion into Egypt 
and the desert; later the return of Egyptian groups with 
some of their desert adherents; the gradual occupation of 
Palestine; the slow development of Hebrew culture through 
the brief period of national unity under David and Solomon, 
followed by the division into the northern and southern 
kingdoms in 937 b.c.; the overthrow of the northern tribes 
by the Assyrians in 721 b.c. and their disappearance from 

— 9 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


history; the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. by the Baby¬ 
lonians; the departure of expatriated and refugee Hebrews 
into Babylonia, Egypt and other portions of the east; the 
gradual return of some from the lands of dispersion; the long 
and painful process of Jerusalem’s revival under many ad¬ 
verse conditions; the rise of Judaism; the life of the Jews 
under Syrian and Roman government; and the beginnings 
of the Christian movement in the first century a.d., all 
occupy a comparatively brief chapter in the long story of 
the centuries. 

Short as was this experience of the rise and fall of 
Israel and the origins of the Christian enterprise, its literary 
records cover an even briefer length of time. Probably the 
oldest writings of the Old Testament date from a period 
as late as the ninth century b.c. A few survivals from the 
writings of these and later years have come to us in that 
collection, which is all we have of the literature of Israel 
during the time when Hebrew was an actually spoken 
language. Considerable additions to this body of documents 
we possess in the later Greek writings of the apocryphal 
list and in the New Testament. But as compared with 
the total literary product of Israel’s social, commercial and 
religious life, the Old Testament is very small. There are 
in it frequent references to other books that have not sur¬ 
vived. It is possible that research may bring to light some 
of these hitherto lost records, but at present the supply 
is limited to a group little larger than the actual biblical 
dimensions. 

One must compare this small body of literature and 
the limited group of people who produced it with the 

—10 — 





The World Before the Bible 


world of the ages out of which it came. Of that world 
the Hebrews knew very little. Their immediate contacts 
were with the related Semitic nations of the fertile crescent, 
that rainbow-shaped area running northeastward from the 
Egyptian delta, along the east coast of the Mediterranean, 
up into the regions where the Euphrates has its sources, and 
downward again along this river to the seats of ancient civi¬ 
lization near the Persian Gulf. Of Egypt, Babylonia and 
Assyria, as well as the clans nearer at hand, like the Syrians, 
Ammonites, Edomites, Moabites, Philistines and Phoeni¬ 
cians, the Hebrews knew from their contacts, either friendly 
or hostile. But when they attempted to think of a wider 
world, it was mostly dim and undefined. In accordance 
with their Semitic beliefs, that world was a flat disk resting 
on the eternal waters, surrounded and covered by a bowl¬ 
shaped firmament, the place of the stars. Jerusalem was 
thought of as the center of this area and the home of Jahveh, 
its covenant deity. Did rumors ever come to these Hebrews 
of lands still more remote? Just across the Mediterranean 
lay the growing civilizations of Greece, Rome and the more 
western parts of Europe. Of those regions almost nothing 
was known to the writers of the Old Testament. Some 
word, to be sure, must have come to them regarding the 
people of Crete and the tragedy that befell them, and of the 
Greek colonies on the coasts and islands of the Aegean, but 
it was only in later days, and especially in New Testament 
times, that these lands became measurably familiar. Did 
they know anything of the great regions farther east like 
India and China? There is no hint that they did, and yet 
these lands were busy with the tasks of commerce and re- 


— n — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


ligion.* Perhaps travelers now and then came from such 
remote districts, just as we know Chinese mandarins traded 
with Roman centurians on the shores of the Mediterranean; 
but such knowledge was all very dim and remote. How 
much less could these Hebrews of the classic age have 
imagined new worlds out beyond the Pillars of Hercules, 
which only later centuries were to discover. 

And yet the people of the Bible lands were surrounded, 
even though at a distance, by civilizations far older than 
their own. When the Hebrew emigrants came from Baby¬ 
lonia, they left cities, temples, universities, venerable and 
wealthy. In spite of the measure of culture reached by 
the earlier inhabitants of Palestine, it was like emigrating to 
a new and less civilized world. Traders who made their 
way into Egypt found themselves in the midst of a mighty 
country with great cities and marvelous temples. Palestine 
to all such travelers out into the regions beyond must have 
seemed a very small and unimportant land. And we know 
today of those other regions in the far Orient whose civiliza¬ 
tions were equally venerable and whose religions had long 
been the creeds of vast populations. 

The Bible is therefore by no means the oldest of human 
records. Priests and prophets, sages and poets had been busy 
in other and far distant lands long before the rise of Hebrew 
life. It is only as one becomes aware of this fact that the 


*The former view that “the land of Sinim ” mentioned in Isa. 49:1 z is 
China is no longer held by scholars. The reference is probably to a region S. E. 
of Palestine, or to Seyene, (Assuan,) on the Nile. The expeditions of the ships of 
Solomon and Hiram to the Indian coast for the commodities of that region seem 
to have brought to Palestine no adequate information regarding that further por¬ 
tion of the Orient. 


— 12 — 




The World Before the Bible 


proper place of the Bible in civilization and world literature 
can be appreciated. It took form far west of the center of 
the world’s early culture. Its people knew just the limited 
region of the Mediterranean, the fertile crescent and the 
desert. The rivers of its geography were the Tigris and 
Euphrates, the Nile and the little Jordan. Paradise, the 
primitive home of the race, was located in their traditions 
somewhere in that Mesopotamian home from which their 
ancestors had come. Of the cities of that outlying world 
they had heard with alarm and disapproval. Tyre, Sidon, 
Memphis, Thebes, Babylon, Nineveh, were all the symbols 
of wealth and wickedness. In comparison with the limita¬ 
tions of Palestine and the provincialism of Jerusalem and 
Samaria, the world outside was only known to be reprobated 
and feared. 

Long before the days of the Bible, Babylonian civiliza¬ 
tion had erected its temples, ordained its priesthood, and 
written its sacred books in honor of its gods and goddesses 
and as the record of magical formulae warding off danger 
or bringing prosperity. This great system of religion was in 
full progress during the years when Israel was a small na¬ 
tion among the highlands of Palestine, and those Hebrews 
who, as travelers or exiles, came to know something of the 
magnificence of Babylonian institutions, felt themselves 
members of a rather insignificant people in comparison with 
the great empire of the east. 

Assyria had a culture and religion derived in large 
measure from Babylonia, and like it in its leading charac¬ 
teristics. Its pantheon of gods had grown up as a collection 
of more or less local divinities gathered at last under the 


— 13 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


leadership of the supreme god of Nineveh, Asshur. Of re¬ 
ligion there was abundance of its kind among the Assyrians 
in the days when Isaiah was preaching in the streets 
of Jerusalem. Hittite cities of wealth and power flourished 
in the eastern areas of Asia Minor, and contended 
with Egypt for the sovereignty of the Mediterranean coast- 
lands. 

Greece had a culture and history as old as the begin¬ 
nings of Hebrew life. The event back to which classic 
Greek poetry went for its inspiration was the Trojan war, at 
least a thousand years before the Christian era. The gods 
of Greece were notable creations of philosophic and poetic 
thought, and were believed to reside in the divine habita¬ 
tions of Olympus, the sacred mountain of the north. The 
high period of Greek life and religion was reached in the 
fifth century b.c., the times when Jerusalem was passing 
through the bitter experiences of siege and destruction and 
its people were dispersed into other lands. 

Rome, whose traditions made the year 753 b.c. the date 
of its foundations, was growing into power in the years 
when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were rising to their 
zenith and declining to their ruin. The religion of Rome 
was largely borrowed from Greece and was the type of 
pagan belief and practice which forms the background of 
the New Testament. 

In India, the Vedas were the classic hymns of the faith 
of Hinduism from early times. Probably in the very years 
when Israel was first penetrating the highlands of Palestine, 
the Vedic civilization was beginning to spread through the 
Indian peninsula, and from that time until the days of the 


— 14 — 




The World Before the Bible 


Buddha in the fifth century b.c., was the prevailing faith 
of that race. 

In the same great century Confucius, the sage of China, 
sent forth his messages regarding the moral duties of man¬ 
kind in the five chief relations. No teacher has ever exerted 
a more profound and widespread influence upon mankind 
than this revered moralist. 

Somewhere in the same general period stands Zoroaster, 
the prophet of the Persian race, one of the first interpreters 
of a belief approaching monotheism. 

It is thus seen that the world before the Bible and the 
world in which the Bible had its beginnings was already 
occupied by many varieties of religious belief and social cus¬ 
tom. It was not a religionless world in which the prophets 
of Israel arose to proclaim their messages. 

In the midst of this complex of civilizations, institutions 
and religions, the people of the Bible had their modest place. 
That place is modern rather than ancient. The New Testa¬ 
ment is a recent document. The Christianity of which it 
speaks is a late arrival in history, and the Hebrew civiliza¬ 
tion that lies back of it comes right up to the threshold of 
modern days. By all odds the greater portion of human 
events, though not those of major importance, lie in the 
period before the days of the Bible, and the task of the 
historian and archaeologist is to recover as much as is possible 
of that ancient and largely unrecorded past. Against this 
background of experience, custom and belief, the Bible has 
a unique and commanding position. 


— 15 ~ 



II 

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BIBLE 


In thinking of almost any book, one naturally pictures 
an author sitting down to the task of its preparation with a 
general plan of its structure, length and purpose. Such an 
idea cannot be associated with the Bible. No one person 
conceived the design of such a book, or set himself to the 
work of writing it. It is rather a collection of documents of 
many sorts and sizes. Some of them are fairly long, appear 
to have a single author, and may well be called books by 
their own right. Such is Job or the Gospel of John. Others 
are compilations of earlier material, gathered from various 
sources, and wrought into unity by the hands of later au¬ 
thors or editors. Such are Genesis, Samuel, Kings and 
Isaiah. Still others are brief tracts or pamphlets, like Esther, 
Ecclesiastes or the Epistles. They were not prepared as 
parts of a collection, much less as chapters of a single book. 
The men who wrote them had no thought that they were 
contributing to a volume that was to take its place among 
the religious classics of the world. They had a much more 
limited and immediate purpose, which can usually be dis¬ 
covered by the reader. 

The word Bible itself is a late and derived name. It 
came from the town of Byblos on the Syrian coast from 
which quantities of papyrus were brought to the Greek 


—16 — 


The Beginnings of the Bible 


cities of the west for the use of writers in the making of rolls 
or books. These rolls acquired the name “ biblia,” or books, 
from association with the town from which they came, 
much as “ china ” or porcelain took its name from the coun¬ 
try where it was first made. The extensive copying and cir¬ 
culation of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures tended to 
connect the word “ biblia,” or rolls, with that collection of 
documents, and so it gave the name Bible to the whole. 

The terms Old Testament and New Testament, as des¬ 
ignations of the Hebrew and Christian portions of the Bible, 
were not known to their writers or early readers. They were 
employed by the church fathers of the third and later cen¬ 
turies as convenient names for the two parts of the Scrip¬ 
tures that had the values of successive covenants, wills or 
testaments, an earlier and a later one. The Jews and early 
Christians spoke of their sacred writings, the Hebrew books, 
as the Scriptures, and Jesus and his friends called them by 
that name. The Christian writings grew up around the life 
and teachings of the Founder, and were freely referred to as 
the Gospels, the Epistles, and the like, or merely as the 
Gospel. 

The books now included in the Bible are but a small 
part of the total mass of writings produced by the Hebrew 
people and the early Christians. The literature put forth by 
any large group such as a nation or the adherents of a par¬ 
ticular religion is likely to be sizable and varied. Such was 
the case among the people from whom the Bible came. But 
its interests are chiefly religious, and writings primarily de¬ 
voted to other themes were not likely to be included. No 
doubt most of them perished. We know this from refer- 


— 17 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


ences in the biblical books to related writings which no 
longer exist. 

The beginnings of the Bible date much further back than 
even the earliest of its documents. Religion is older than 
writing. Men worshiped long before the art of writing was 
known. And long after they could write, the ritual of the 
primitive sanctuaries was doubtless passed on orally from 
one generation to another without thought of writing it 
down. Men speak long before they write. In the times 
when biblical materials first began to take form it was easier 
to remember than to write. Stories, parables, proverbs and 
poems were handed on from father to son and from teacher 
to scholar. It is thought that the Homeric poems, the clas¬ 
sics of ancient Greece, were not written out at the time of 
their composition, but were carried in mind with slight 
changes for centuries. Writing is old as an achievement, 
but late as a necessity and diversion. In antiquity few men 
knew the art, and the work was costly and laborious. Even 
for those who possessed the knowledge essential, the mate¬ 
rials of writing were difficult to obtain. Stones, clay tablets, 
parchment, papyrus, and paper have been the successive 
steps in the world’s literary history, and each step marks a 
long advance in the command of the means of writing. 

Older and contemporary nations had reached a high de¬ 
gree of proficiency in the use of writing by the time the 
Hebrews began their national career. The Egyptian monu¬ 
ments preserve the annals of kings and the hymns of poets, 
and Babylonian obelisks, cylinders, and letters record the 
expansion of the cultural influence of that civilization. But 
the Hebrew survivals are few, either because the literary im- 


—18 — 




The Beginnings of the Bible 


pulse was feebler, or because the records have perished. 
With few exceptions, such as archaeological research is 
bringing to light, the Old Testament is the sole surviving 
literature from the classic age of Hebrew life.* 

Yet it seems probable that long before any portions of 
the Old Testament were written down as we have them to¬ 
day, there were many sayings, proverbs, maxims and ora¬ 
cles that floated about in the common speech of the people, 
and passed as current coin in the give-and-take of conversa¬ 
tion. The Orient has always been fond of wise, witty or 
quaint sayings in which the wisdom of the past is stored. 
Long before the book of Proverbs was produced there were 
many such floating bits of humor and sage counsel as the 
oldest biblical sources, like the books of Judges and Samuel, 
bear witness. Examples are numerous. When the two 
Midianite chiefs were brought to bay by Gideon, they 


* Examples of writing are mentioned in fairly early Hebrew times. A youth 
captured by Gideon wrote down for him the names of the princes and elders of his 
town (Judg. 8:14); David wrote a letter to Joab (x Sam. 11:14); Jezebel wrote 
letters to the elders and nobles of Jezreel (1 Kings xi :8). The Siloam inscription 
is evidence that Hebrew workmen in the age of Hezekiah could record an incident 
in their cutting of the water course. It has often been supposed that there was 
some special degree of sanctity in the Hebrew language, because the books of the 
Old Testament were written in that tongue. This is not the case. It was merely 
one of several dialects into which the family of Semitic languages was divided. 
It seems to have been in large measure the speech of the people inhabiting Canaan 
at the time the first Hebrew immigrants reached the Mediterranean coast from 
their Aramean and Babylonian fatherlands. They absorbed the language of their 
new neighbors in Canaan, in so far as it differed from their former speech, and this 
in time came to be known as the Hebrew language. Its similarity to other Semitic 
dialects of the region is shown by the close resemblance of the characters on the 
Moabite Inscription of King Mesha and those of the Siloam Inscription. Though 
the Hebrew is by no means the most finished of the Semitic tongues, it is a re¬ 
markably expressive language, and the sacred writings of the Hebrews owe much 
of their picturesque and forceful character to the dialect in which they were re¬ 
corded. (See G. R. Driver in The People and the Book , p. 74. Oxford Press, 19x5.) 


19 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


begged that he would slay them himself rather than dis¬ 
honor them by committing the deed to his son, saying, 
“ Rise thou and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his 
strength.” They were evidently quoting a familiar saying. 1 
The question “ Is Saul also among the prophets ? ” became a 
proverb applied to anyone who joined a group outside his 
social class. 2 In Ezekiel 12:21 reference is made to a proverb 
that was current in Palestine, “ The days are prolonged and 
every vision faileth.” More familiar still was the saying 
quoted with disapproval both by Ezekiel and Jeremiah, 
“ The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth 
are set on edge.” 3 “ They that speak in proverbs ” are 

quoted as uttering an oracle against Moab 4 in language that 
resembles the national warning of the prophet Amos. 6 
Probably most of such current sayings were gathered into 
collections like the book of Proverbs, but some persisted as 
stray utterances, even to New Testament times, such as the 
one quoted by Jesus, “ Physician heal thyself,” 6 or that re¬ 
garding the dog and the swine in 2 Pet. 2:22. 

It would appear that the early Hebrews were also fond 
of riddles, and used them as means of entertainment at feasts, 
weddings and other social gatherings. The book of Judges 
contains several examples. Samson propounded a riddle to 
the guests at his marriage with a reward to the winner, 7 and 
when he lost his wager, he quoted a familiar proverb as cov¬ 
ering his case. 8 Tradition reported the correspondence be¬ 
tween David and King Hiram of Tyre as consisting in part 
of such puzzles. 9 Several examples of this sort of riddles 

1 Judg. 8:zi; 2 i Sam. io:ii, iz; 19^4; 3 Ezek. 18:z; Jer. 3i:z9, 30; 4 Num. 
zi:z7~3o; 6 Chaps. 1, z; 6 Luke4:z3; 7 Judg. i4:iz ff.; 8 V. 18; 9 Kings 5:1 ff. 


— 20 — 





The Beginnings of the Bible 


that have passed into number sonnets are given in the 
Proverbs. 10 

Youthful races are poetic in their spirit, like the children 
of today. They love and make poetry. Fragments of such 
songs have been preserved in the narratives of ancient Israel. 
They probably belong to a much earlier age than the prose 
writings in which they are embedded. It is fortunate that 
they were familiar enough to be quoted by the later writers. 
There is, for example, the Sword Song of Lamech, the boast 
of a warrior over his prowess in battle. 11 There is the oracle 
of Noah regarding the fortunes of his three sons. 12 And the 
Well Song, quoted in part in Numbers 21117,18, is a reminis¬ 
cence of the desert journey of Israel. These and others of 
like brevity are probably portions of longer poems, the re¬ 
mainder of which has been lost. 

It is fortunate, however, that some of the early songs 
and ballads have survived in measurably complete form. 
Such is the Song of Deborah, 13 which celebrates the victory 
of Israel over the Canaanites and praises the courage of 
Jael in taking the life of the oppressor of her people. The 
Song by the Sea 14 is a paean of triumph over Israel’s escape 
from Egypt and the overthrow of Pharaoh’s hosts in the sea. 
This poem seems to have grown from its original form by 
the addition of stanzas that recount the later conquest of 
tribes on the road to Canaan. It may be that in the women’s 
song of rejoicing over David’s defeat of Goliath 15 there is 
given only a fragment of a much longer poem. The songs 
and blessings of Jacob and of Moses, 16 and the war song of 

10 Prov. 19:15, 16, 18, 19, 11-31; 11 Gen. 42.3-2.4; 12 Gen.92.5-17; 13 Judg. 
5; 14 Exod. 15; 16 1 Sam. 18:6, 7; 11:11; 19:5; 16 Gen. 49; Deut. 31:11-30, 31, 33. 


— 21 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


David 17 may have some actual connection with these na¬ 
tional leaders, or may have been attributed to them by later 
poets. The oracles of the prophet Balaam against Moab and 
in praise of Israel form an interesting and impressive section 
of the book of Numbers. 18 

Along with these victory songs, there were treasured 
laments and elegies over the deaths of famous men. One of 
the most beautiful of these is the dirge of David for Saul 
and Jonathan, slain in the battle of Mount Gilboa. 19 This is 
called the Song of the Bow in honor of Jonathan, David’s 
friend, and was quoted from a lost collection, probably of 
hero songs, known as the book of Jashar. From the same 
source is quoted the oracle regarding the arrested sun. 20 
Another elegy of David’s, the one for the murdered Abner, 
is apparently recorded only in a fragment. 21 Perhaps at a 
later time such bits of national poetry were gathered into 
collections like the book of Jashar, or the book of the Wars 
of Jahveh. 22 For centuries before there was any attempt to 
write down the floating poetry of remembrance, these and 
many other songs probably passed about as the common 
possession of the Hebrew bards and story-tellers. 

Of course, the Hebrews possessed a background of tra¬ 
dition and mythology, like most nations. Stories and 
legends were handed down from their ancestors in Baby¬ 
lonia and Aram. Some of these ancient narratives are re¬ 
produced in the Old Testament or are mentioned in con¬ 
nection with current interests. Many peoples have their 
accounts of human beginnings and of primeval days. The 

17 i Sam. n, recorded also as Psalm 18; 18 Num. 13:7-10, 18-14, M : 3 “ 9 > 
15-14; 19 iSam. 1:17-17; 20 Josh. 10:11,13; 21 1 Sam. 3:33, 34; 22 Num. 11:14, 15. 


— 22 — 




The Beginnings of the Bible 


Hebrews were no exception to this rule. Their stories of 
creation, found in the first two chapters of Genesis, were evi¬ 
dently derived from Babylonian originals which may still 
be read in the religious poetry of that land.* Traditions re¬ 
garding long-lived patriarchs and chiefs, like those recorded 
in Genesis 4 and 5, are found in the writings of other na¬ 
tions.! The narratives of the deluge 23 form part of the 
world’s collection of tradition regarding tragedies resulting 
from floods, tidal waves and inundations. The story of 
the tower of Babel 24 was one of the early Semitic romances 
which, like the Greek legend of the giants who strove with 
Jove, told of the efforts of men to storm heaven and contend 
with deity, and the punishment that befell them in conse¬ 
quence. It is evident that the biblical narratives have pre¬ 
served only a small part of what was current legend and 
mythology in Israel. What did the Hebrews believe regard¬ 
ing other human beings than those descended from Adam ? 
Where did Cain find a wife ? 25 What was the explanation 
of those strange marriages between angels and mortal 
women, 26 which form so important a section of the apocry¬ 
phal book of Enoch, and are mentioned in the New 
Testament? 27 

Allusions to leviathan, the sea monster, 28 the dragon of 
the deep, 29 Rahab, the fabled mistress of the storm floods, 30 
Lilith, the night demon, 31 Azazel, the evil spirit of the 
waste, 32 behemoth, the land monster, 33 the dreaded spirits 

* Kent, Beginnings of Hebrew History, appendices i and z 
f Lenormant, Origins of History, chapter z 

23 Gen. 6-8; 24 Gen. u; 26 Gen. 4:16, 17; 26 Gen. 6:1-4; 27 Luke 10:18; 1 
Pet. z:4; Jude 6; 28 Job 41:1-34; Pss. 74:14, 15; io4:z 6; Isa. Z7:i; 29 Ps. 74; Isa. 
51:9; 80 Isa. 51:9; 31 Isa. 34:14; 32 Lev. 16:8; 33 Job. 40:15^4; 

— 23 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


of the desert, 34 and similar creatures of legend and mythol¬ 
ogy make evident the fact of that world of imagination and 
tradition which lay back of current Hebrew thought. 

Probably the patriarchal traditions regarding Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph formed a part of a much larger mass 
of recital than has survived. These stories of exploits of 
their forefathers must have been repeated at the camp fires 
of the Hebrews for many generations before they were put 
into written form. They told of migrations from the lands 
of the great rivers of the east, lands which were the scene 
of military operations during the great world war, and are 
now being explored afresh by scholars in search of ancient 
remains. In coming to the west these emigrants crossed 
the Euphrates, from which fact they acquired the name 
Hebrews, the people who “ crossed over ” the great river, 
the “foreigners.” 35 They told of arrival in Canaan and 
various wanderings and attempts at settlement there. Ac¬ 
cording to these narratives, the early Hebrews gained but 
limited possession of the land, whose population, the result 
of former migrations, was much stronger than they. The re¬ 
lations established with the people of the land were only 
partial, and often not friendly. Feuds were frequent 36 and 
commercial dealings were conducted with reserve and 
caution. 37 

Several localities were occupied by the various clans of 
Hebrews, and some of them moved southward as far as 
Egypt, constituting doubtless a part of that greater Semitic 
movement which took possession of the Nile valley for some 
generations, until expelled by the revival of Egyptian na- 

34 Isa. 13:11; 85 Gen. 14; se Gen. 34; ® Gen. 13. 


— 24 — 





The Beginnings of the Bible 


tionalism under the kings of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
dynasties. It has been thought that Rameses II was the 
Pharaoh of the oppression, and Merneptah, his son, the 
ruler in the time of the Exodus under Moses. These He¬ 
brew experiences are nowhere mentioned on the Egyptian 
monuments. But reference is made on a stele of Merneptah 
to the subjugation of Israelite clans in Canaan at this pe¬ 
riod,* which would imply that some of that race had re¬ 
mained there at the time of the migration to Egypt. 

After a period of some years spent in the desert oases 
east of Egypt, partly in the vicinity of a mountain region 
called Sinai or Horab, now unknown,! the tribes of Israel, 
accompanied by certain friendly desert groups, made their 
way to the highlands east of the Jordan, and under Joshua 
and various other tribal chieftains, and at different times, 
crossed the river and gained possession of the central moun¬ 
tain range of western Palestine.} The book of Judges, 
probably the oldest of the biblical records, preserves some of 
the traditions of this period of struggle and chaos, with here 
and there a local leader arising to take the field against 
some one of the repeated inroads which distressed the vil¬ 
lages. “There was no king in Israel in those days, but 
every man did that which was right in his own eyes ” 38 

* Price, The Old Testament and Monuments , p. 341 ff. 

t The biblical records (Exod. 3:1; Deut. 33;Judg. 5:4, 5) locate Sinai some¬ 
where in the region of Midian, Seir or Paran, east of Egypt, and south of the Dead 
Sea. The tradition which identifies the mountain of the law with Jubel Musa, the 
modern monntain and monastery of St. Catherine, is not earlier than the sixth 
century a.d. 

X The name Palestine seems to have come from the fact that the Greek 
geographers mistook the Philistines of the southwest coast for the inhabitants 
of the whole of Canaan, and named the country accordingly. 

88 Judg. 17:7; zi:z5- 


— 25 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


is a fairly good description of an age of anarchy. Centuries 
later the story of the conquest was told in a highly romantic 
and dramatic manner in the book of Joshua, with the ac¬ 
companying features of miracle, destruction of the native 
population, and brief, brilliant military achievement. The 
period of the judges closed with the ministry of Samuel, the 
first of the prophetic successors of Moses, and the man who 
laid the foundations of Israel’s national life. 

After the brief and tragic experiment of Saul, the king¬ 
dom of Israel was firmly established by David of Bethlehem, 
who with his son Solomon raised the status of the nation 
until it compared favorably with all but the great empires 
on the Nile and the Euphrates. The division of the king¬ 
dom, however, at the end of Solomon’s reign (937 b.c.) de¬ 
stroyed forever the possibility of a really important state, and 
reduced the nation to two kingdoms of moderate size, Israel 
and Judah. These were sometimes allied and sometimes at 
war, and nearly always more or less in the position of war 
vassals to one or another of the stronger people about them 
— Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedon, and finally 
Rome. Under these hammer blows of fate and conquest the 
northern kingdom of Israel succumbed to the Assyrians in 
721 b.c., and the smaller state of Judah, which had pre¬ 
served the Davidic dynasty throughout its three and a half 
centuries of history, perished with the destruction of Jeru¬ 
salem in 586 b.c. and added a fresh chapter to the story of 
Israel’s dispersion among the nations. 

It was probably in the ninth century b.c., in the days of 
the two kingdoms, that the first writings took form. Down 
to that time the materials of Hebrew tradition, narrative, 


— 26 — 




The Beginnings of the Bible 


poetry, folk-lore and custom-law had apparently been trans¬ 
mitted from memory and by word of mouth. Writing was 
not unknown, and among the older civilizations of Baby¬ 
lonia and Egypt it was widely practiced. But among the 
Hebrews there was little need for it until the rise of the 
prophetic and priestly groups, and the beginnings of a 
literary age. 

Thus the early stages of biblical literature are seen to 
lie in the shadowy region of spoken rather than written 
words. It is fortunate indeed that so much of this ancient 
material was preserved in the practiced memories of later 
writers, and is to be found embedded in the documents now 
in our possession. 

Note. The divine name Jahveh used in this book is believed by scholars 
to be the true form of the covenant name of deity represented in the Hebrew text 
by the tetrayrammaton or four-letter term JHVH. It was never pronounced by 
the Jews, and wherever it occurred in the text the word Adonai, “my Lord,” 
was substituted for it in the reading. By using the vowels of Adonai with the 
consonants JHVH the word “Jehovah” was contrived, which of course was 
neither a Hebrew nor an English word. It is a barbarism which only long usage 
in English Bibles could excuse. It seems better to employ the word in the form 
which we know from Greek renderings to have been its real pronunciation, or 
else use the translation LORD, as is done in most of the English versions. The 
word “Jehovah” has only the value of long and reverent usage, and rests on no 
authentic foundation. 


~2 7 — 





Ill 

THE PROPHETS AND 
THEIR WRITINGS 

What kind of religious leaders did the Hebrews have 
and how were the records of their activities preserved ? One 
may begin the answer by saying that there were three orders 
of men who taught in Israel — the prophets, the priests and 
the wise men or sages. 1 Each of these groups left writings 
which are included in the Old Testament. It is probable 
that the work of priestly ministry in the local sanctuaries be¬ 
gan before there was any prophetic activity; for most com¬ 
munities had their local shrines or high places, correspond¬ 
ing to the village churches of today, only that there were no 
rival congregations of different sects. One community cen¬ 
ter of worship was sufficient. But as an order the prophets 
came before the priests both in the importance of their con¬ 
tribution to the national life and in the period at which their 
work reached its greatest value. 

The word “prophet” means one who speaks forth, a 
preacher of the truth, a teacher of righteousness. In both 
Assyrian and Arabic speech the root so translated means an 
announcer, a proclaimer, an interpreter or mediator between 
deity and man. In the Old and New Testaments alike the 
term “ prophecy ” is applied to preaching. In popular usage 
during the past century there has been a tendency to restrict 

ijer. 18:18. 


— 28 — 


The Prophets and Their Writings 


its meaning to prediction, but this was not the original pur¬ 
pose of the word, and foretelling future events was but a 
small part of the function of the prophet. When Milton 
wrote his tract on “ The Liberty of Prophesying,” he meant 
by it the right to preach without official permission from the 
Established Church. 

Probably most nations, particularly the more important 
ones, have had men who performed in some degree the 
work of prophets. Among the Egyptians and Babylonians 
there were those who proclaimed the duties of the moral 
life, the obligations of justice and mercy.* The fact that 
kings in their state records laid claim to wise and humane 
administration of government, to sympathetic regard for the 
poor and the unfortunate, shows that such ideals were pro¬ 
claimed by moral leaders and were recognized by some of 
the people at least as obligatory on their rulers. 

But in Israel the preaching of righteousness appears to 
have had a much more important place than among con¬ 
temporary nations, and it gave rise to a class of men of 
unique significance in the history of ethics and religion. 
Indeed so outstanding was the work of the prophets that 
the later Hebrews were inclined to attribute to their first 
leaders the character of prophets without regard to the par¬ 
ticular services they rendered. Abraham is called a prophet 
by one of the authors of Genesis, 2 and Jacob, in spite of 
frankly recorded moral delinquencies, is credited by pro¬ 
phetic writers with some of the worthful traits of their 

* Smith, J. M. P., The Prophet and His Problems , chap. i. Ipuwer of Egypt, 
whose date was somewhere between zooo and 1800 b.c., has been called the first 
social prophet. 

2 Chap. zo.7. 


— 29 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


order. 3 The function of the prophet as a speaker is illus¬ 
trated by the reference to Aaron as the prophet of Moses 
his brother, who was less gifted in speech. 4 

When we first have a view of the prophets of Israel 
busy at their customary work, the spectacle is not particu¬ 
larly attractive. They hardly differed from the dervishes to 
be found in some parts of the Orient today. They went 
about the country in gypsy-like bands, shouting, singing, 
playing upon crude instruments, like the pipe, tambourine 
and drum, dancing and working themselves up into states 
of excitement which often resulted in their raving in ecstatic 
words or falling hypnotized and unconscious on the 
ground. 5 In fact in the speech of early Israel, to prophesy 
meant to rave. Saul in his fits of madness prophesied, i.e., 
carried on like a madman. 6 Several incidents are narrated 
of this chieftain in contact with the groups of prophets who 
differed so strikingly from him in their social status that 
when he was found among them and under their influ¬ 
ence people exclaimed in wonder, “Is Saul among the 
prophets ? ” 7 

These bands of enthusiasts, going about the land, hold¬ 
ing their exciting orgies, telling fortunes, and preaching the 
national religion, gave little promise of that notable service 
which the greater men of their order were to render. In the 
first days, as we are told, 8 those who were later called proph¬ 
ets were known as seers, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers. Prob¬ 
ably none of the early stages of religion are wholly free from 
the practice of magic. This appears to have had its place 

3 Gen. 31:14-18; 35:10; 4 Exod. 7:1; ^ 1 Sam. 10:5; 19:13, 14; 6 1 Sam. 
18:10; 7 1 Sam. 10:11; 19:14; 8 1 Sam. 9:9. 


— 30 — 




The Prophets and Their Writings 


among the primitive Israelites. Instances of this are the at¬ 
tempt of Balaam to put a ban or spell on Israel, 9 resort to a 
prophet as to a public diviner, 10 the use of a bronze snake as 
a device for healing, 11 various forms of omens, signs and di¬ 
vination which prevailed and were denounced by the 
greater prophets, 12 and the practice of astrology. 13 Dreams 
were regarded as intimations of the divine will, 14 and also 
the casting of lots, which is often mentioned. 15 Urim and 
Thummim (“ lights and perfections ”)* were qualities sup¬ 
posed to reside in a magic stone worn in the breastplate or 
held in the hand or kept in the possession of a priest or di¬ 
viner and capable of disclosing the will of deity. 16 It was 
in the capacity of a diviner that Saul first sought Samuel. 17 

There were behind the prophets the noble traditions of 
Moses and his achievements. His figure to be sure is con¬ 
siderably obscured by legend and romance. But in order to 
have gained so notable a name as captain, prophet and law¬ 
giver, he must have possessed unusual qualities of leadership. 
His shadow was cast far down across the history of his peo¬ 
ple. Hosea declared that the Lord brought Israel up out of 
Egypt by a prophet (Moses), and by the same prophet he 
preserved them. 18 When later generations considered the 
need of a continuing order of men with the character of 
leaders, they reported Moses as promising that from time to 
time God would raise up from them a prophet like him- 


* G. R. Driver derives the words from Assyrian and Babylonian roots 
meaning “oracles and spells.” (Cf. The People and the Book, p. 90 f.) 

9 Num. 13, Z4; 10 1 Sam. 9:5-10; 1 Kings 14:1-3; 11 Num. 1 1:6-9; 12 Deut. 
18:10; 1 Sam. 15:2.5; Isa. 8:19; 65:3-7; 13 Isa. 47:13; 14 Gen. 18:10-17; 40:5 ff.; 41:1 
ff.; 1 Sam. 18:6, etc.; 15 E.g. Sam. 14:41; 16 Exod. 18:30; 1 Sam. 18:6 and often 
elsewhere; n x Sam. 9:5-8; 18 Chap. 11:13. 


— 31 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


self. 19 Indeed they liked to think of Israel the nation as a 
prophet people, bearing to other races a divine message, 20 
and they were glad to believe that Moses himself, far from 
being jealous of the preaching of other men, had wished that 
all the Lord’s people were prophets. 21 

As to whether we owe any of the writings of the Old 
Testament to Moses himself is a question on which criticism 
is not entirely resolved. The first five books of the Bible, 
popularly called the Pentateuch,* the five rolls, lay abundant 
claim to Mosaic authority, and in certain parts, particularly 
the laws, to Mosaic authorship. 22 Yet the difficulty of as¬ 
cribing any portion of these writings to that ancient leader 
is evident from the contents of the documents themselves, 
and has led to revision of Jewish and early Christian views. 
It was natural that the laws of Israel should be ascribed to 
the man who was the outstanding prophet and lawgiver of 
the first, the Egyptian, period of Israel’s history. That belief 
became the accepted tradition, and is embodied in the books 
of the Hexateuch. Something of Moses’ life and teaching 
was undoubtedly handed down in oral form, and even per¬ 
haps in writing, and was included in such later narratives as 
those of Deuteronomy and the priestly records of Leviticus 
and Numbers. The authors of Deuteronomy, writing some¬ 
time in the seventh century b.c., declared that there had not 
arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses. 23 

After the tribes secured a foothold in Palestine under 
various leaders, such as Joshua and Caleb, and had passed 

* Scholars now recognize the close relationship of Joshua to the five books 
that precede it, and usually refer to the six as a unit, the Hexateuch. 

19 Deut. 18:15; 20 Isa. 21 Num. 11:19; 22 Exod. 14:4; 34:17,18; Deut. 
31:14; 2 3 Deut. 34:10-11. 






The Prophets and Their Writings 


through some decades of varying fortune at the hands of 
their Canaanite neighbors and invaders from the desert, dur¬ 
ing which period the people, the language and the culture 
of Canaan were gradually absorbed, a really notable leader 
appeared in the person of Samuel. He combined in him¬ 
self the qualities of prophet, seer, judge, and military leader. 
He appears to have been the last of that rough and ready 
order of local chieftains known as the judges, some of whose 
exploits are narrated in the book of that name, a very old 
body of narratives. 

Dedicated in infancy to the service of the sanctuary, and 
reared among the priests at Shiloh, Samuel may have 
learned from them the art of divination, for which he was 
known in later days. 24 After the destruction of that shrine 
by the Philistines he established himself at Ramah and from 
that center made pilgrimages to various localities like Bethel, 
Gilgal and Mizpah, holding assemblies of the people which 
were a sort of combination of terms of court and religious 
revivals. Gradually he attached to himself the groups of 
“ prophets,” the wanderers and dervishes of the ecstatic type, 
and located them in the places he visited. These “ sons of 
the prophets ” so often mentioned in the record formed the 
groups to which the title of “ schools of the prophets ” has 
been appropriately applied. They were probably the earliest 
approaches to schools known in Israel. Like the monas¬ 
teries of the middle ages, they served the purposes of instruc¬ 
tion for their order. They preserved the teachings of Moses, 
Samuel and other leaders of their class, and carried out their 
messages to wider communities. Here also the first stages 

24 i Sam. 9:5, 6. 


— 33 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


of prophetic writing were probably carried on. Whatever 
of written material existed would naturally be collected and 
multiplied in these circles. 

One instance alone is given of writing by Samuel. On 
the choice of Saul as king, the prophet is said to have ad¬ 
monished the people on the nature and meaning of their 
new form of government, and to have written out in a book 
the substance of his instructions. 25 No further mention is 
made of such a “ book,” and if actually written it probably 
perished, or its substance may have been incorporated by the 
Deuteronomists in their code of laws regarding kings. 28 

Not long after the time of Samuel, David a young shep¬ 
herd from Bethlehem rose to power in the army and house¬ 
hold of Saul, the first king of Israel, and after Saul’s death 
in battle with the Philistines he succeeded him as ruler. 
David’s date was probably not far from 1000 b.c., and ac¬ 
cording to frequent custom he was credited with a reign of 
forty years. There are evidences of literary work in this 
period. To David were attributed the dirges over Saul and 
Jonathan, and Abner. 27 Tradition assigned to him the com¬ 
position of psalms, such as the eighteenth, an early war song, 
duplicated in 2 Sam. 22, and later generations made him the 
author of half the hymns in the book of Psalms. Some 
foundation for such beliefs there must have been;* however 
the modern scholar finds it necessary to reduce to limited 
terms the Davidic element in the Psalter. 

* Such a basis is found in the references to David as a minstral in i Sam. 
16:17, 18, and to his use of the harp in Amos 6:5, and in the traditions regarding 
his part in the organization of the liturgical features of public worship found 
in 1 Chron. 16. 

25 1 Sam. 10:15; 26 Deut. 17: 14-10; 27 1 Sam. 1:17-17; 3:33, 34. 


— 34 — 




The Prophets and Their Writings 


In his reign and that of his son, Solomon, 28 there were 
men who wrote accounts of current events and some facts 
regarding the kings. Mention is made of a book of Samuel 
the seer, one of Nathan the prophet, one of Gad the seer, 29 
and of a book of the Acts of Solomon. 30 The author 
of 2 Chronicles 9:29 refers to the book of Nathan the 
prophet, and to the prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh and the 
visions of Iddo the seer.* There were also scribes and re¬ 
corders in the courts of David and his successors, 31 who were 
doubtless the writers of those lost “ Chronicles of the Kings 
of Israel ” and of Judah so often cited by the authors of our 
books of Kings and Chronicles as among their sources. 32 
Much of this work was prophetic in character, written not 
merely as historical record, but for purposes of ethical in¬ 
struction. 33 

The division of the kingdom at the close of Solomon’s 
reign (937 b.c.) was the work of the prophets of the na¬ 
tional faith under the leadership of Ahijah of Shiloh. They 
dreaded the effects of the centralizing and despotic character 
of the government upon the popular religion, and chose 
rather to wreck the national unity than to invite moral disas¬ 
ter. Their efforts were but partially successful, for the 

* Additional references are made to the “words of Shemiah the prophet,’’ 
and of “Iddo the seer” (z Chron. iz:i5), the former of whom is mentioned in 
1 Kings izaz and elsewhere, and many prophets are named of whom no writing 
is affirmed, such as Azariah son of Oded (z Chron. 15^-7), Hanani the seer 
(z Chron. 16:7), Jehu the prophet (1 Kings 16:1, 7, iz) and Jonah the prophet 
(z Kings 142.5), the probable model for the fictitious Jonah of the book of that 
name (see p. 109 f.). In addition many unnamed prophets are mentioned throughout 
the prophetic narratives(cf. 1 Sam. z:z7; 1 Kings zo:35 f.; zz:6; z Kings 9:1 f.; 
z Chron. Z5 7 f., etc.). 

28977-937 b.c.; 29 j Chron. Z9:Z9; 30 1 Kings 11:41; 31 z Sam. 8:16, 17; 
32 z Kings 8 :z 3; 10:34; I2 -: I 9J 2- Chron. z4:z7; z8:z6; 3z:3z, etc.; 33 z Chron. zo: 
34; cf. 1 Kings 16:1. 


35 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


northern kingdom, deprived of contact with the sanctuary 
at Jerusalem, fell an easy prey to the heathen influences of 
the neighboring lands, and even the kingdom of Judah felt 
the evil effects of foreign manners. Reforms were organ¬ 
ized in the north by Elijah and his successor, Elisha, who 
employed the drastic methods of revolution against the 
dynasty of Ahab. But the moral tone of both kingdoms de¬ 
clined and more urgent voices were needed.* The perse¬ 
cutions under Jezebel, Ahab’s energetic and fanatical queen, 
greatly weakened the prophetic order. From that time on¬ 
ward the men of that group tended to professional rather 
than vital religious leadership, and became a menace rather 
than a help to the worship of Jahveh. The greater moral 
leaders regarded them as false prophets and severed all con¬ 
nections with them, as in the cases of Micaiah, Amos, etc. 3 * 
Of literary work in this period there is little mention. 
Jezebel, the queen in Samaria, wrote letters to the chiefs of 
Jezreel regarding Naboth and his vineyard, 35 and Elijah is 
said to have written a reproving letter to Jehoram of Judah. 36 
But the fact that the Chroniclers ignore systematically the 
northern kingdom and all its activities and make no other 
mention of Elijah throws some doubt upon that reference. 

The most notable achievement of the prophetic order in 
the days that followed the reforms instituted by Elijah and 
carried to their bloody conclusion by Jehu was the prepara- 

* The greatness of these two prophetic leaders as moral and political 
defenders of the state is echoed in the words of keen regret addressed to each of 
them at the close of his career, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and 
the horsemen thereof.” They were a greater protection to Israel than hosts of 
armed men (z Kings z:iz; 13:14). 

34 1 Kings zz:5-z 8; Amos 7:10-15; 35 1 Kingszi:8, 9; 36 zChron. zi:iz. 

— 36 — 





The Prophets and Their Writings 


tion of a body of narratives covering in the prophetic man¬ 
ner the entire course of events from the beginnings of the 
world to their own time as embodied in the traditions 
handed down in their circle. These prophets appear to have 
lived in the southern kingdom of Judah and may have been 
stimulated to their task by the recent reforms in the north 
and the overthrow of the idolatrous queen Athaliah by the 
priest Jehoiada and the young king Joash in Jerusalem. 
These events occurred about 842 and 836 b.c., respectively, 
and probably about 825 b.c. the prophets put forth their 
record. From the fact that it was the product of the Judean 
school of leaders it is usually called the Judean prophetic 
document. From the added fact that it employs predomi¬ 
nantly the divine name Jahveh, it is often called the Jahvist 
or “ J ” narrative. It is found in longer or shorter sections 
all the way from Genesis 2, through portions of Exodus, 
Numbers, Deuteronomy (briefly in chapter 34), Joshua 
(slightly in chapters 2 and 9) and Judges.* 

The style is free and flowing, the narratives are vivid 
and concise. Jahveh is represented as an intimate, friendly 
deity, conversing freely with man, and taking an active part 
in the affairs of his people. The places and leaders named 
are chiefly those of Judah. The manners are simple and 
primitive. But the will of Jahveh as the divine ruler is the 
supreme duty of man. These narratives were not the prod¬ 
uct of a single writer but belong to a school or circle of 
prophets, and were supplemented by later writers who 

*The analysis of the “J” document, with references to the biblical text 
may be found in Driver’s Introduction to the Literature of the 0 . T. pp. 117-111, 
or in Kent's Beginnings of Hebrew History, pp. 31-37, and Chart, pp. XIII- 
XXX. 


— 37 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


wrought in the same spirit and whose work, while distinc¬ 
tive, belongs in the same body of teaching. Such stories as 
the second narrative of creation, 37 the temptation and sin of 
man, 38 the sons of God and the daughters of men, 39 the 
tower of Babel, 40 the destruction of Sodom and the deliver¬ 
ance of Lot, 41 the marriage of Isaac, 42 Jacob's meeting with 
Rachel 43 and his return to Canaan 44 belong to this 
document. 

It was the purpose of the writers of this body of narra¬ 
tives to give a prophetic interpretation of human affairs, and 
particularly of Hebrew experiences from the earliest times 
down to the age of its authors. The fact that later on it was 
blended with another series of narratives accounts for the 
fragmentary form in which it is found in the Old Testa¬ 
ment. But this fact cannot obscure the graphic nature of 
its story of the past, nor the urgent faith and patriotismr of 
its authors. It has preserved in first-hand form a large pro¬ 
portion of the source material upon which our knowledge of 
Israel’s early history and religion rests. 

Some time in the next century, probably about 750 b.c., 
another body of narratives, prophetic in character, took 
form in the northern part of the country. It began doubtless 
like the former document with a recital of the story of crea¬ 
tion and the primitive experiences of the race, but nothing 
remains of these early portions. It begins at the story of 
Abraham and Abimelech 45 and continues intermittently 
through the remaining books of the Hexateuch. It uses to 
a considerable extent, though not exclusively, the divine 

37 Gen. i; 38 Gen. 4; 39 Gen. 6:1-4; 40 Gen. 11; 41 Gen. 18:16-19:18; 
42 Gen. 14; 43 Gen. 19:1-14; 44 Gen. 31:3-33:17; 45 Gen. 10. 

-38- 





The Prophets and Their Writings 


name Elohim, usually translated “God,” and so is often 
called the Elohistic source. It is chiefly concerned with 
places and leaders belonging to the northern kingdom. 
From the fact that the northern kingdom was often called 
Ephraim from its leading tribe, as well as from the employ¬ 
ment of the name Elohim, this body of narratives is often 
called the “ E ” document. Its style is quite different from 
the “ J ” writings. It is less anthropomorphic, that is, God 
is not represented so much as taking an active part in 
human affairs, but rather as accomplishing his purposes 
through chosen leaders with whom he communicates by 
means of dreams and visions. Idolatry is more strongly dis¬ 
approved. The authors are more sensitive to moral qualities 
in the heroes of the record. The spirit of this source is more 
nearly that of the prophets Amos and Hosea, whose ministry 
fell in this general period. Among the narratives that be¬ 
long to the “ E ” source are the sacrifice of Isaac, 46 Jacob’s 
purchase of his brother’s birthright, 47 Jacob’s marriages, 48 
Joseph’s interpretation of dreams, 49 Joseph’s interview with 
his brothers, 50 and the last days of Joseph. 

Each of these documents is marked by words and 
phrases peculiar to itself. As in the case of the Judean rec¬ 
ord later additions were probably made to the Ephraimite 
source. At some period after the fall of the Northern King¬ 
dom in 721 b.c. the two documents were combined by 
Judean prophets whose groups alone survived. This blend¬ 
ing of the narratives probably took place about 650 b.c. It 
accounts for numerous duplications where the same incident 
is repeated in slightly different form. It also accounts for 

46 Gen. 11; 47 Gen. 19:17-34; 48 Gen. 19:15-30; 49 Gen. 40; 60 Gen. 41. 


—39— 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


the fact that the Judean element predominates in the com¬ 
bined account, which is known as “ JE.” 

During this earlier period of the prophetic activity, 
there was felt the influence of the “ sons of the prophets,” 
the preachers who were related to the “ schools of the proph¬ 
ets ” and went out through the land interpreting the ideals 
of men like Moses, Samuel, Elijah and Elisha. Many ref¬ 
erences are made in the literature to these unnamed teachers, 
whose manners had improved and whose utterances had 
taken on a higher character with the growth of prophetic 
purpose. To such men and the labors of their circles we owe 
much of that body of narrative that occupies so large a por¬ 
tion of the Old Testament from Genesis to Kings. 

Even in this early and rude period of Hebrew life cer¬ 
tain admirable moral qualities are evident and are more 
definitely and habitually exhibited than in any other ancient 
civilization. Among them were honesty, fidelity to truth, 
faithful payment of debts, respect for leaders, courage in 
danger, bravery in battle, unselfish devotion to family, friends 
or causes, hospitality to strangers, kindness to the poor and 
the unfortunate, and justice in the courts. That there were 
many departures from these ideals is made clear by the 
record and by the rebukes of the religious leaders. Yet the 
standard of moral conduct was relatively high, and in this 
regard Israel became a pattern to the nations. The writings 
of the Old Testament are the open witness of these facts. 

And how did it come to pass that out of such a little 
country, and from such an inconspicuous people there 
emerged such ideals and such a literature ? Many factors seem 
to have contributed to this result. Palestine was in the cen- 


— 40 — 





The Prophets and Their Writings 


ter of the ancient world. It was located at the meeting point 
of three continents. It was secluded, with barriers of moun¬ 
tain, desert and sea, and yet open to contacts with all the 
world. It was the bridge between the empires of the Eu¬ 
phrates and the Nile. It was the buffer state between north 
and south. It was the battle ground of the centuries, so 
that its plain of Megiddo seemed to a later apocalyptist to be 
the Armageddon, where the world’s final conflict between 
righteousness and evil was to be fought. 51 The trade cara¬ 
vans of all the earth passed through that land, and yet 
its people were largely undisturbed on their highlands. 
They had brought from the desert in the past the rough¬ 
ness, the hardihood, and the mental alertness of that austere 
region. The monotheism which would appear to be suited 
to desert dwellers was not wholly overcome by the polytheism 
and the seductions of a settled land when they entered 
Canaan. The comparative isolation of Israel on its moun¬ 
tain ridge aided the prophets in their passion for the wor¬ 
ship of Jahveh, their national God from the desert, and their 
struggle for a nobler morality than that which existed in the 
pagan states around them. In the struggle with these 
neighboring peoples Israel finally went down. But out of 
that incessant conflict certain world ideals emerged, and cer¬ 
tain experiences were achieved in virtue of which this peo¬ 
ple, few in numbers and living in “ the least of all lands,” 
became the moral leader of the nations, the parent of three 
monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Moham¬ 
medanism — and the pioneer in the vanguard of the world’s 
spiritual progress. 

61 Rev. 1 6 : 6 . 


— 4 I — 




IV 

THE GREAT PROPHETS AND THE 
DECLINE OF PROPHECY 


It is with the arrival of Amos of Tekoa that the real 
ministry of the prophets begins, and we are able to lay hands 
on the authentic words of these moral leaders. There is a 
thrill in the fact that on opening the book of Amos one is 
reading the first actual writing of a man of this order and 
one of the earliest books in the Bible. Here is the thrust and 
urgency of the spoken word. Like the other documents of 
its kind, the book of Amos is plainly a series of messages, 
sermons preached on the streets of Bethel or Samaria, with 
brief editorial notes interspersed. These sermons are prob¬ 
ably but a small part of what the prophet said during the 
years of his ministry, and doubtless they only contain a por¬ 
tion of what he said on any one occasion. Little light is 
thrown by the biblical records on the manner in which the 
prophetic books like Amos took form. Did the prophet 
write out his oracles, and read them to his audiences, like 
some modern preachers ? Did he, after preaching, write out 
the substance of what he had said, in order to preserve it, or 
to distribute it to wider circles ? Or did followers and dis¬ 
ciples of his write what they were able to recall of his ser¬ 
mons, and use them in the wider ministries of their order, 
or preserve them for study in the schools of the prophets ? 


— 42 ~ 


The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


We do not know. But the last is not an unreasonable con¬ 
jecture and is strengthened by Isaiah’s reference to his circle 
of disciples. Nor is the reader sure that the entire material 
of any particular prophetic book is the work of the man 
whose name it bears. Authorship was held of slight account 
in antiquity. But there is no reason to doubt that the sub¬ 
stance of the book of Amos came out of the ministry of that 
stern and aggressive herdsman and farmer. 

He appeared with his cattle and his figs in the markets 
of northern Israel about the year 750 b.c. and began presently 
to preach against the luxury, the dishonesty and the im¬ 
morality of the wealthy inhabitants of the capital. Jeroboam 
II (781-740 b.c.) was in the midst of his successful reign. 
Samaria was the seat of government, and Bethel, Gilgal, Dan 
and other northern cities had sanctuaries, in at least two of 
which golden bulls had been set up by the first Jeroboam 
( 937 “ 9 I 5 B - c *) as the images of Jahveh. 1 Though he did not 
belong to the professional group known as the prophets or 
the “ sons of the prophets,” as the order was popularly called, 
Amos was stirred by what he saw of idolatry and social in¬ 
justice in the towns of Israel, and felt himself commissioned 
of God to preach those sermons of reproof and warning of 
which the book is the record. 

He first gained the attention of his audience by de¬ 
nouncing the neighboring nations, Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, 
Edom, Ammon, Moab and Judah. Then he warned the 
people of Israel, the nation in whose chief cities he was stop¬ 
ping. The sins of a country acquiring wealth and forgetting 
God were charged against them, and the approaching trag- 

1 1 Kings iz:i6-19. 


— 43 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


edy of Assyrian invasion was indicated as the punishment 
for the evils of the age. By direct preaching and by figur¬ 
ative speech the prophet fulfilled his mission as a moral 
leader, a reprover of the unsocial conduct of the chiefs and 
the commoners of the northern kingdom that was so soon 
to come to its end. The book of Amos furnishes a vivid com¬ 
mentary upon the morals and the manners of the time, 
and the reason why the prophets of the Lord found their 
task so difficult. 

Soon after the ministry of this prophet another appeared 
in Samaria, a younger man named Hosea. He may have 
been a listener to some of the public utterances of Amos, 
but neither mentions the other in the writings that have 
survived from them. Hosea was a native of Israel, a young 
man of ability, whose ministry covered a much longer pe¬ 
riod than that of his older colleague. He lived in the pros¬ 
perous days of Jeroboam II and in the period of chaos and 
decline that followed. It was but twenty years from the 
death of Jeroboam until Sargon of Assyria took Samaria 
(721 b.c.) and brought the kingdom of Israel to its close. 
During that brief time six kings followed each other in 
swift succession, and four of them perished by assassination. 
It was a time of confusion and collapse. 

Hosea came to his prophetic task by reason of domestic 
unhappiness, which is described either in fact or parable in 
the first three chapters of the book that bears his name. 
That book is first in the list of the so-called minor prophets, 
but the order of these books is unrelated to their dates. 
Hosea’s domestic tragedy brought to him with startling 
reality the pathos of God’s experience with Israel, whom the 


— 44 — 




The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


prophet likens to an unfaithful wife. That was the new and 
unhappy interpretation of the nation’s attitude toward its 
divine Lord and husband. The story told in those first 
chapters regarding Hosea, whether it is an actual experience 
of his or a dramatic picture of the immorality of the 
times, sets Jahveh in vivid contrast with the Baals of Pales¬ 
tine as the real lover and lord of Israel. The remainder of 
the book is a record of Hosea’s preaching in Samaria the 
capital and of the swift decline of Israel to the abyss of ruin. 
The message of the preacher was a reflection of the senti¬ 
ment of the forsaken lover and husband. Never does he 
despair of the ultimate redemption of his faithless wife or of 
the fickle people, and his pleas are urged with a heart¬ 
breaking tenderness that at times mingles with the furious 
jealousy of one who is always hopeful of amendment, and 
is ever suffering disappointment. Assessed in terms of 
achievement of the ends sought, the work of Amos and 
Hosea must be regarded as a failure, for the nation did not 
repent, and the end came swiftly and tragically. But the 
new standards of social justice and personal integrity set 
by these moral leaders mark them as among the great voices 
of Israel’s history, fitting predecessors of the prophets who 
followed. 

Of these the most notable was Isaiah of Jerusalem, whose 
ministry fell in the period between 739 and 701 b.c., during 
the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Ju¬ 
dah. In fact with the work of Isaiah and his contemporary, 
Micah, prophecy passed from the northern to the southern 
kingdom. Hitherto the prophets were mostly men of the 
north. Now, by reason of the fall of Samaria, the field of 


—45 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


this ministry was narrowed to the small region of Judah. 
The book of Isaiah, the longest in chapters in its present 
form, is in reality the work of at least three different writers, 
and only the first portion 2 belongs to the ministry of the 
great prophet of Jerusalem. These chapters are not ar¬ 
ranged in chronological order, and their sequence has to 
be determined in relation to the historical background fur¬ 
nished by the second book of Kings. 

The call of the young man Isaiah to his prophetic work 
occurred in 739 b.c., “ the year that King Uzziah died,” and 
is related in chapter 6. From that experience came the con¬ 
sciousness of a holy mission to Judah, and the program of 
national and civic life disclosed by the God of whom the 
prophet henceforth spoke as “ the Holy One of Israel.” The 
materials of the portion of the book belonging to the min¬ 
istry of Isaiah may be grouped in three periods, correspond¬ 
ing roughly to the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. 
The sermons in the first section, “ the Exalted Mountain,” 
chapters 2-4, and “ the Vineyard,” chapter 5, present a con¬ 
vincing picture of the prophet’s personality and message, as 
well as some idea of the times. The second period finds its 
climax in the crisis of 734 b.c., when in the reigns of Jotham 
and Ahaz Judah was threatened with the hostility of Syria 
and Israel to compel her assistance against the oncoming 
Assyrians. 3 By the prophet’s insistence Judah was kept 
out of the northern alliance, but Ahaz foolishly bought the 
help of Tiglath-Pileser, the dreaded conqueror, and thereby 
involved his kingdom and his successors in a heavy annual 
tribute. 4 The fall of Damascus, and later that of Samaria, 

2 Isa. 1-39; 3 1 Kings 15:37-16:9; «Isa. 7-9. 

-46- 





The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


were themes of these years. 5 Damascus fell in 732 b.c., as 
Isaiah had foreseen, and Israel a decade later. The third 
outstanding event in the prophet’s ministry was the siege and 
deliverance of Jerusalem, so graphically portrayed in chapters 
36 and 37 and reported also in 2 Kings 18,19. The devasta¬ 
tion of Judah by Sennacherib of Assyria, related in graphic 
detail in his own cylinders, and pictured as well in Isaiah 1, 
left the kingdom stripped and impoverished, but the capital 
at least was spared for another century. 

During the forty years of Isaiah’s ministry he stood as 
Judah’s ideal prophet-statesman. His advice on matters of 
political nature was not always heeded, and the results were 
unfortunate. He was not always correct in his forecast of 
the future, as when he predicted the rise of a delivering king 
to beat back the Assyrian foe. 6 But his teachings lifted still 
higher the standard erected by Amos and Hosea, and his 
name went down the centuries as the greatest of the proph¬ 
ets of God through Hebrew history. It was not strange that 
under the protection of his name were gathered the writings 
of men of different periods and varying points of view. 
The book that bears his name is proof of that fact. And its 
title carried his authority to oracles that he never saw* 
But there was a certain fitness in making him, of all the 
prophetic leaders in Israel, the chief and head. 

While Isaiah was preaching in Jerusalem, another 
prophet was voicing the wrongs of the peasant, rural class 
on the western slopes of Palestine. Micah lived in the town 
of Moreshah, not far from the ancient Gath. His message is 

* Such as chapts. 40-66. Sec also the view presented by Torrey, The 
Second Isaiah , pp. 53-76. 

8 Isa. 17, z8; 6 Isa. 9:1-7. 


— 47 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


that of a countryman, whose neighbors were suffering from 
the exactions of their absentee landlords, who lived in Jeru¬ 
salem or Samaria and drew their revenues from the hard 
labor of the tenant farmers. He spoke as a defender of his 
class, a tribune of the peasantry. He may have known 
Isaiah, his fellow prophet up at the capital. They both make 
use of a dramatic oracle, “ the Exalted Mountain,” perhaps 
the original utterance of Isaiah, and perhaps from an earlier 
seer. 7 At all events Micah appears to have denounced the 
evils of rural oppression as did Isaiah those of the city. It 
is not surprising that so fearless a preacher should have 
offended the social leaders of his time and brought him¬ 
self into acute danger. 8 He might well have suffered mar¬ 
tyrdom for his courageous words had not Hezekiah the king 
recognized the justice of his plea. It may well be that some 
of the reforms of that reign were due to Micah’s intrepid 
words. 9 

The ruler who followed Hezekiah in 686 b.c., was Ma- 
nasseh, a man of totally different spirit. Reacting violently 
against the teachings of the prophets of Jahveh, he promoted 
heathen worship in the land and persecuted the faithful. 10 
His son Amon held to the same course. It was not until 
Josiah came to power in 639 b.c. that better days dawned. A 
friend to the ancient faith, he introduced reforms and re¬ 
stored the temple. In the course of that good work there 
was discovered a book of law, manifestly prepared by anx¬ 
ious priests and prophets in the dark days of persecution, 
and carrying the traditions of Moses’ teaching and the new 
laws suited to the later time. That was the basis of the 
7 Mic. 4:1-3; cf. Isa. 1:1-4; 8 Jer. 16:17-19; » 1 Kings 18:1-8; *> 2 . Kingsn. 




r 


The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


great reformation projected by the king throughout his 
realm. Into that enterprise the loyal prophets and priests, 
including probably the young Jeremiah, threw themselves 
with enthusiasm, and for a brief period a better day seemed 
to have dawned. But the unhappy end of Josiah’s career at 
Megiddo cut short the movement, and the last days of Judah 
came swiftly on. 11 

During the long reign of Manasseh the voice of proph¬ 
ecy had been almost completely silenced. It was not until 
the more favorable days of Josiah’s rule that the men of 
God had opportunity to speak. The first of those who gave 
forth an oracle was Nahum. His theme was the approach¬ 
ing downfall of the Assyrian empire, that came to its end 
under the combined assaults of the Medes and Babylonians 
in 607 b.c. That gigantic power that had swept westward 
in great impulses from the middle of the eighth century b.c., 
and had reached the acme of its ambition in the conquest of 
Thebes the capital of Egypt in 662 b.c., had taken all before 
it on its devastating way. Hamath, Arpad, Damascus, Sa¬ 
maria, Philistia and Judah had fallen victims to its rapacity. 
It was the most hated of kingdoms. Nahum, with the clear 
vision of a seer, foresaw its inevitable overthrow, and some 
years before that tragic event, perhaps about 625 b.c., de¬ 
scribed its fall in words of fierce eagerness and complete 
confidence. 

The most exciting event of the early portion of Josiah’s 
reign was the invasion of the western lands by a host of 
Scythians, wild horsemen, who like the Huns of later days 
spread terror before them and left ruin behind. It is not 

11 z Kings zz, Z3. 


— 49 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


probable that Judah was actually overrun by these barbarians, 
but the universal alarm caused by their presence in Syria and 
their raids along the Mediterranean coast gave another 
prophet his theme — the coming day of destruction for 
Judah, still under the influence of the long idolatry of Manas- 
seh’s reign. “ The great day of the Lord ” formed the sub¬ 
ject of Zephaniah’s thought, and passed over into mediaeval 
poetry in the classic hymn, “Dies irae, dies ilia.” In this 
brief prophecy, as in Amos, the catalogue of nations who 
were to suffer was but the prelude to the announcement of 
Jerusalem’s punishment, because she was proud, oppressive 
and disobedient, her rulers avaricious and rapacious, and her 
religious leaders perverters of their office. The closing part 
of the book is more hopeful. The emphasis of Zephaniah 
was upon the certainty of divine wrath against sin, but also 
the redemptive character of its penalties, with the further 
suggestion that redemption included not only Israel but all 
nations. 

Habakkuk is another of the prophets regarding whom 
nothing is known beyond the title of the book. The situa¬ 
tion revealed in this short volume seems to have been the 
change of world power from Assyrian to Babylonian hands, 
from one despotism to another. Had anything been gained 
by this transfer of world dominion from one unscrupulous 
nation to one just as bad ? Was it not as hard a fate to be 
under the heel of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) as of the 
Assyrians? How could the divine purpose be justified in 
the face of such events ? This is one of the ever-recurring 
forms of the world-old problem of evil and its reconciliation 
with divine providence. The message is in the form of a di- 


— 50 — 




The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


alogue between God and the prophet. After asking how 
God can use so barbarous an instrument for the accomplish¬ 
ment of his will, the seer pauses for a reply, which comes at 
last in the form of an oracle: “ The Chaldean is indeed puffed 
up with pride; but the just man shall be saved by his faith¬ 
fulness.” The divine purpose may seem mysterious, but 
the people of God must wait in confidence. The righteous 
man saves himself by trusting Jahveh. The closing chapter 
is a majestic ode whose theme is confidence in God and in 
his power and willingness to aid his people. 

If Hosea may be called the prophet of the decline and 
fall of Israel, certainly Jeremiah is worthy the title of the 
prophet of the decline and fall of Judah. His ministry ex¬ 
tended over half a century, from the middle of Josiah’s reign 
till after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. His call 
came in the thirteenth year of the king, with whom he lived 
in true companionship, preaching his message of protest 
against the seductive survivals of the days of Manasseh. 12 
When the law book (Deuteronomy) was found in the temple, 
he preached the principles of the new covenant along with 
the other reformers of the time, in spite of the difficulties en¬ 
countered. 13 The tragic death of Josiah removed his royal 
friend and the protector of the entire prophetic group. That 
circle was rapidly diminished, until Jeremiah stood prac¬ 
tically alone, with Jehoiakim the king and the court hostile 
to his work. It had been the happy fortune of Isaiah to 
preach a doctrine of optimism, believing that the safety of 
Jerusalem was essential to the divine purpose. It was the 
tragedy of Jeremiah’s ministry that he had to insist that 

12 Jcr. 1 - 6 ; 13 Jer. ii, 11. 


— 51 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


Jerusalem had passed her day of grace and that it was too 
late to escape the destruction and dispersion which alone 
could bring true repentance. His was a sad and hazardous 
career. The victim of persecution and plots, he was more 
than once in peril of his life. The nation had relapsed into 
idolatry after the death of Josiah, and the court encouraged 
the debacle of the reformation. Throughout the years of 
Jehoiakim (605-597 b.c.) Jeremiah’s situation was pathetic 
indeed. His treatment by the king is well illustrated by 
Jehoiakim’s contemptuous destruction of the roll of oracles 
prepared with so much labor by the imprisoned prophet. 14 

Hardly more favorable was his position during the fol¬ 
lowing reigns of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. His advice 
that the city ought not to attempt the impossible adventure of 
resisting the Babylonian army on its approach brought on 
him a fresh outburst of anger on the part of the jingo pa¬ 
triots at the court. All he could do was to appeal to the 
future and insist that though Jerusalem was doomed to fall, 
the people should return from their expatriation after 
seventy years of discipline and restore the ruined capital. 
When the city finally fell, owing to the folly of the royal 
advisers and the lack of a sane policy, Jeremiah was given 
by the Babylonian commander the melancholy choice of 
going with the captives to the far lands of their deportation 
or of remaining with those who were deemed worthless for 
purposes of removal. He chose the latter course, as likely 
to be of greater advantage to his unhappy people. But soon 
after he was carried away into Egypt, reluctant and protesting, 
by a company of his fellow Hebrews, who were terrified 

14 Jer. 36. 


—52— 





The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


by the murder of the governor, Gedaliah, and fearful of 
retaliation by Babylon. The last seen of this martyr-prophet 
is on the banks of the Nile, still warning his fickle country¬ 
men against the disasters of idolatry. 

The little book of Obadiah contains a message on a 
theme never forgotten in the dark days which followed 
the fall of Jerusalem. That was the hatred felt for the peo¬ 
ple of Edom, who had always been the subject of bitter in¬ 
vective by all the prophets and poets of Israel from the days 
of Amos onward. It appears that at the siege of Jerusalem 
they hailed with savage joy the overthrow of the city, and 
added their taunts to the sorrows of its unhappy citizens. 
Whether the fragment of prophecy that goes by the name 
of this prophet was composed shortly after the overthrow 
of the city in 586 b.c. or at some later time is not certain, but 
it voiced the feelings of the harassed people in one of the 
saddest moments of their history, and denounced vengeance 
upon the hated sons of Edom. 

In some regards the period that followed the fall of the 
city was the most significant in the story of the nation. It 
began with the destruction of Jerusalem, and really never 
came to an end. For few if any of those who went away 
from Judah ever returned. Some of their children came 
back after half a century had passed, but the great majority 
of the race was dispersed in the east and south and made up 
the groups of Hebrews in Persia, Babylonia and Egypt in 
that and later centuries. During that first fifty years there 
were three significant prophetic voices whose messages were 
outstanding in the writings of the Old Testament. The 
first of these was Jeremiah of Jerusalem, whose ministry of 


— 53 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


fifty years has already been reviewed. The second was 
Ezekiel of Tel-abib in Babylonia. And the third was per¬ 
haps the most impressive and influential of the three — the 
unknown prophet, whose utterances are found in Isaiah, 
chapters 40-55, and who is usually called the Second Isaiah, 
the Isaiah of the Exile, or the Evangelical Prophet.* 

Among the Jews who were taken to Babylonia by Neb¬ 
uchadrezzar in 597 b.c., after Jerusalem was besieged and 
brought to subjection, was a young man named Ezekiel, of 
priestly family. The group of Hebrews to which he be¬ 
longed was located at a place called Tel-abib on one of the 
irrigation canals of southern Babylonia, a stream called 
Chebar. Five years later he began to exercise the functions of 
a prophet, called to his ministry by a vision of the glory 
of God and his presence with his people even in the lands 
of their expatriation. The book which records his service in 
that little town gives a picture of the experiences of a typical 
Hebrew colony in Babylonia. This book, unlike those of 
Isaiah and Jeremiah, is fairly consecutive in its material. 

It falls into three sections: (1) The story of the min¬ 
istry of the prophet in Tel-abib, from the date of his call to 
the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem. 15 During these five 
years Ezekiel endeavored to convince his countrymen that 
their exile was not a mere temporary episode, but that the city 
they had left was doomed to destruction because of its sins, 
many of which he described in picturesque language, parable 
and vision. He refuted the popular idea that they were the 

* Professor Torrey holds that chapters 34-66, with the exception of 36-39, 
form a homogeneous group, and are the work of a single hand (op . cit . p. 53). 

16 Ezek. 1-24. 


“54— 




The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


victims of their fathers’ evil-doings and insisted on the in¬ 
dividual responsibility of each man. At last he learned that 
the king of Babylon had actually begun the investment of 
Jerusalem. (2) From that time he ceased his public preach¬ 
ing regarding the sins of Judah and turned his attention to 
the neighboring lands, after the example of Amos and later 
prophets. Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, Sidon, 
and Egypt are summoned to undergo the divine discipline 
because of their iniquities. These national oracles were of 
course intended for the instruction of his own people and 
probably were never conveyed to the peoples with whom they 
were supposed to deal. 16 (3) At last a refugee from Jerusa¬ 
lem brought the news that the city had fallen. The tidings 
caused the greatest consternation among the people in Tel- 
abib. Hitherto they had been so confident of a speedy end 
to their exile that the words of the prophet fell on deaf 
ears. Now all was changed. He was vindicated, and his in¬ 
fluence immeasurably extended. But the sad news that Jeru¬ 
salem was no more and that the best of her people were on 
their way to Babylonia in the company of their childless and 
blinded king filled all hearts with a tragic sense of hopeless¬ 
ness. It was now that Ezekiel’s work began afresh. It was 
necessary to revive confidence in the certainty of Jahveh’s 
promises of restoration. Here the third part of the book 
begins. The future program of the nation is outlined. The 
land of Palestine is to be cleansed of the presence of pagan 
and defiling peoples, the nation itself is to be purified, 
given a new heart and raised to fresh life. But best of 
all, a new temple, greater and more beautiful than the 

16 Ezek. 2.5-32.. 

—55— 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


structure reared by Solomon, is to be set up in the restored 
city, and all the land is to be made fresh and fertile 
by the river of God that is to flow from the threshold 
of the holy house. 17 These hopes, like many others in¬ 
spired by the prophets, were never realized in their literal 
form. But they served the end of encouragement in days 
when the nation seemed on the point of complete collapse, 
and to them much of the later achievement of Judah was 
due. 

In the year 538 b.c. Cyrus the Persian became master of 
the Babylonian empire, and world rule passed from Semitic 
to Aryan hands. There was little change however in the 
condition of the Hebrews either in the east or the west. 
Cyrus issued his decree permitting all exiles in his realm to 
return to their former homes. But few of the Hebrews 
availed themselves of this opportunity. Perhaps none would 
have done so had there not been lifted a new prophetic voice 
among them. The task which Jeremiah and Ezekiel had 
carried on with devotion during the early years of the age 
of dispersion was taken up by an unknown prophet in the 
last decade of the half century of captivity. That message is 
found in the second part of the book of Isaiah. 18 In many 
respects it is the greatest of the prophetic utterances. Be¬ 
ginning with the heartening words, “ Comfort ye, comfort 
ye my people, saith your God,” it sounds clearly its four notes 
of prophetic assurance: The nation is to return to its home¬ 
land of Judah; Jahveh its God is incomparably more potent 
than the hand-made gods of Babylonia; Cyrus the Persian, 
now on the frontier of the empire, will conquer it and be the 

Ezck. 33-48; » Isa. 40-55. 

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The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


divine agent for Israel’s release; and the Servant of God, — 
sometimes thought of as the nation, sometimes as the right¬ 
eous remnant, the nucleus in which hope remains, and 
sometimes as an individual, a martyr-prophet, a suffering 
servant of God, — is to succeed in his mission of national and 
world redemption. The realization of these hopes, as the 
writers of the New Testament perceived, came not through 
the dismembered and scattered nation, nor through any elect 
remnant, nor through any martyr-prophet like Jeremiah, 
or stricken king like Jehoiachin, but through the life and 
ministry of One greater than all, who in due time ap¬ 
peared to fulfill the high task which Israel could not 
accomplish. 

This was the last of the great prophetic messages. In 
those that followed there is found less of the true inspira¬ 
tion which made notable the work of the great moral leaders 
of the nation. With the coming of Cyrus the Persian to the 
throne of the empire and of the world, hopes were revived 
for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the 
national life. Small companies of Hebrews made their way 
back to Judah. Their coming gave those of Palestine courage 
to undertake the revival of their institutions. It seemed that 
the promises of the prophets of the exile were about to be 
realized. Under the leadership of two prophets of the coun¬ 
try, Haggai and Zechariah, the plan of rebuilding the temple 
was undertaken in 520 b.c., and after many delays and much 
difficulty it was brought to its completion in 516 b.c. The 
nominal leaders of the little community were Zerubbabel 
and Joshua, who had come with an early group of Baby¬ 
lonian Hebrews, but the real initiative was with the two native 


—57 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


prophets. Their brief oracles 19 afford an interesting pic¬ 
ture of the discouraging situation, and the patriotic efforts 
made by them to carry through the enterprise. 

A still later and perhaps a still more depressing view of 
conditions is afforded by the little book of Malachi. The 
reign of Darius I (521-485 b.c.), who had only just secured 
his throne in the days of Haggai and Zechariah, was fol¬ 
lowed by that of Xerxes I (485-464 b.c.), the Ahashuerus of 
the book of Esther and the leader of the disastrous expedi¬ 
tion into Greece. The aspirations of the Judeans to politi¬ 
cal power apparently led to the suppression of the line of 
David and the substitution of a Persian governor for the 
native prince. Though the temple was completed, most of 
the ancient site of Jerusalem was still covered with ruins, and 
the walls were dismantled, as they had been left by Nebu¬ 
chadrezzar in 586 b.c. This is the situation made evident by 
the book of Malachi. The people are very poor and deeply 
disheartened. They are forgetting the law and their duties. 
The worship at the temple is slack and indifferent. Only 
repentance and amendment of life can bring prosperity. 
The book closes with the warning that an Elijah may be 
expected soon who will fearlessly set things right and bring 
the evil to judgment. Thus the Old Testament comes to 
an end with words of stern severity toward the negligent and 
the scorners, but of warm commendation for the righteous 
who still keep the Mosaic commandments. 

Somewhere in this later period the books of Joel and 
Jonah are to be placed. The former was a lesson drawn 
from a locust plague that devastated the land. This is re- 

19 Hag. 1, i and Zech. 1-8. 

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The Great Prophets and the Decline of Prophecy 


garded by the prophet as the harbinger of a more sinister 
visitation by a mysterious enemy that shall waste the coun¬ 
try. Only repentance can avert the danger. In such a time 
of peril Jahveh is roused to aid his people. He promises re¬ 
lief. The locust plague is to be dispersed, the enemy shall 
be driven away, the land shall again be fruitful, and the 
greater blessing of the outpoured Spirit of God shall be 
realized. The restoration of the still scattered Hebrews to 
their native land is to be completed, while the nations that 
have wasted Israel are to be overthrown. The emphasis of 
the book is upon the bright future of the redeemed and puri¬ 
fied people and the destruction of those that have wrought 
their ill fortune. The book of Jonah is a prophetic answer 
to the narrower nationalism of Ezekiel, Joel and Esther. Its 
date falls in this late period* 

The final stage of this prophetic movement, in which 
the true prophetic spirit has practically disappeared, is found 
in the late apocalyptic portions of the Old Testament, such 
as the third part of the book of Isaiah, 20 the last two sec¬ 
tions of the book of Zechariah, 21 Isaiah 13, 14 and 24-27, 
and the representative apocalypse of the Old Testament, the 
book of Daniel.f 

It is thus seen that prophecy in Israel described some¬ 
thing of a curve, ascending with the early seers from Samuel 
to Elisha, reaching its culmination in the great prophets of 
the Assyrian and Babylonian periods, such as Amos, Hosea, 
Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and the Second Isaiah, and declining 

* It is discussed among the biblical romances (chapter VII). 

f See chapter VIII. 

20 Isa. 56—66; 21 Zech. 9-11 and 11-14. 

— 59 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


from the time of Ezekiel to its final extinction in scribism 
and apocalypse. But the ideals of the great prophets were 
never lost, even after their voices were hushed. Their mes¬ 
sages were repeated from generation to generation, and when 
once more the spirit of prophecy emerged in John the Bap¬ 
tist, and supremely in Jesus, it was back to these master 
teachers of an earlier age that the new prophets reverted for 
the basis and motive of their words of warning and hope. 


— 60 — 






V 

PRIESTLY ACTIVITIES AND 
LITERATURE 

Of the three teaching orders in Israel, the prophets, 
the priests and the wise men or sages, the second probably 
came nearer the life of the people than either of the others. 
The priests were an order of village pastors and had charge of 
the local sanctuaries, the high places that in earlier times 
played so important a part in the community life, and later 
fell into disrepute. 

The functions of the priests were various. They min¬ 
istered at the sanctuaries by attending to the sacrifices when 
people came bringing their offerings and partook of the sac¬ 
rificial meals. 1 They gave instructions in the name of 
God. They divined for those who asked for counsel, either 
by the use of the ephod, a priestly garment or a divining 
image, 2 or by what was known as Urim and Thummim, a 
form of inquiry by means of a magic stone. 3 They acted 
as health officers when there were persons brought for their 
inspection. 4 It was natural that the instructions of the 
priests at the sanctuaries should grow into a body of institutes 
or laws, and from the days of Moses onward there gradually 
took form, usually in his name, the rules and regulations of 

1 i Sam. 1:3-5; 2 Gen. 15:11; 1 Sam. 14:3, 18,19; 3 Num. 17:11; Ezra 
1:63; Nch. 7:65; 4 Lev. 13:1-3, 47-49. 


-6l — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


this order of men. These were the laws of Israel, and they 
were generally called the laws of Moses. 

The development of the priesthood in Israel was an in¬ 
teresting process, as among other ancient people. At the 
first every man was priest in his own family. The classic 
illustration of the earlier steps in the growth of this order 
is found in the seventeenth chapter of the book of Judges. 
Micah a householder of the tribe of Ephraim decided with 
his mother to use a bit of money that they wished to put to a 
good service in the making of a couple of images for wor¬ 
ship, probably a figure of Jahveh the national deity, and a 
likeness of the family ancestor. The man, who was naturally 
the priestly head of the family, decided to make one of his 
sons the family priest. All this was evidently regarded as 
quite proper and exemplary. There was apparently no 
prejudice against the use of images, ephod or teraphim, nor 
did any man need be a Levite in order to function as a priest. 

One day along came a young man from the south, who 
made himself known to Micah as a Levite out of a job, and 
the householder employed him at a satisfactory wage to be 
his priest. Probably this was the manner in which in many 
places the Levites came to be given such places. They be¬ 
longed to the tribe of Moses. Perhaps they were not numer¬ 
ous enough to obtain a tribal territory at the time the other 
tribes came into the land, or were reduced in numbers in 
feuds with the Canaanites.* They were a sort of poor re¬ 
lation, landless, and to a large degree mendicants. It seems 
to have become the custom among the people to provide for 

* Gen. 49:5-7; cf. Gen. 34:1-31, probably a folk-story based upon early 
tribal animosities. 


— 62 — 






Priestly Activities and Literature 


them out of consideration for their great tribesman, the 
former leader of the nation, and their present unsecured 
condition. Gradually this custom became established to the 
extent that their service as priests became general, but not 
obligatory. In the earliest code of law * they were not 
mentioned. But by the time the Deuteronomic code took 
form, it was declared that none but Levites could minister as 
priests, and that all Levites were potentially of this order. 
As a still further development of the priestly estate, the late 
Priest Code of Ezra’s day limited the priesthood to a par¬ 
ticular clan in the tribe and reduced the remaining Levites 
to the rank of temple servants. The later recognition of the 
Levites as the sole members of the priestly class was em¬ 
phasized by the tradition that in the days of Moses that tribe 
was selected for this service by the miraculous sign of the 
budding rod of Aaron , 5 and their functions are recorded 
in a late hymn of the tribes of Northern Israel, put by the 
authors of Deuteronomy into the mouth of Moses . 6 Here 
the services of the Levitical priests consist in divining by 
Urim and Thummim, teaching the people the law of God, 
and officiating in the offerings of incense and burnt 
sacrifices. 

Equally instructive is the manner in which the priestly 
group enhanced its own importance by narratives regarding 
the sacredness and fearsomeness of the sanctuaries and the 
ark , 7 and at the same time augmented its own income from 
priestly ministries. At the first, in the period after the serv- 


* Exod. 34:17-16 — “J”; Exod. 10:1-13:19 = “E.” 

B Num. 17:1-11; 6 Deut. 33:8-11; 7 1 Sam. 5, and especially 6:19 and 1 
Sam. 6:6, 7. 


— 63 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


ices of priests at the sanctuaries became recognized, there 
was no stated compensation for their work. The people 
who came to offer their sacrifices gave to the priest and his 
helpers whatever they chose, in addition to the parts of the 
sacrificial carcass that could not be taken away.* The blood 
was poured out as a libation upon or beside the altar , 8 the 
fat was burned upon it as God’s portion , 9 and the edible 
parts, boiled in the kettles kept for that purpose, were dis¬ 
tributed by the worshiper to his family.f At the same time 
he would give the priest or his helper whatever part of the 
offering he chose as a tip or gratuity. This custom did not 
satisfy the priests. It left too much to the inclination of the 
worshiper. The next step planned was the thrusting of a 
fork into the seething kettle, so that whatever came up was 
the portion of the priest. It was literally “pot luck.” It 
might mean much or little, a desirable or a scanty joint . 10 
Something more certain was wanted. So the next demand 


* Sacrifice was evidently the survival and development of various primitive 
customs, all of which had for their object the gaining of the friendship, favor and 
protection of deity, (i) One was the sacrificial meal, in which God was regarded 
as a commensal, a fellow guest, and offered the best of the ceremonial food. (z) In 
some instances the sacrifice was a survival of and compromise with the early 
custom of human sacrifice, in which an animal was substituted for the human 
victim, a child or slave. In Israel’s earliest code of law it is definitely stipulated 
that all the first-born of men and beasts belonged to God, i.e., were to be devoted 
or sacrificed. Doubtless this was regularly the practice of pre-Hebrew times, and 
still survived in certain instances (Judg. 11:34-40). But even the earliest embodi¬ 
ment of formal law in Israel provided for the redemption of sons by payment of 
money or some form of substitution, and the later teachers sternly forbade the 
practice (Exod. 342.0). (3) In other cases the eating of the meat of an animal 
sacred to deity was believed to impart to the worshiper the qualities of power and 
cunning possessed by the god. This is also the principle underlying certain forms 
of cannabalism, i.e., by devouring the flesh of an enemy killed in conflict, some¬ 
thing of his strength and skill is gained. 

f Blood and fat as the two things devoted to deity were tabu to the people. 

* Dcut. iz:i6, 13, 14; 9 1 Sam. z:i 6 ; 10 Sam. z:i3, 14. 

-64- 






Priestly Activities and Literature 


was a portion of the meat raw, before it was put into the 
kettle to boil. This was an innovation that was resented 
by the people. Their interest was in the sacrifice as a means 
of communion with God and of securing his favor. The 
sprinkling of the blood and the burning of the fat were 
to them the significant parts of the ritual. Then the 
sacrificial meal would follow. But in some instances 
at least the priestly attendant was too intent upon his 
gratuity to wait, and he demanded it at once, threatening 
to take it by force. Such conduct was regarded as 
a scandal and made men lose their respect for the wor¬ 
ship. 11 

But this was only a modest demand in the light of later 
usage. When the Deuteronomic law was issued it made a 
stipulated provision for the priests, by giving them a liberal 
portion of every offering, 12 and the later Priest Code still 
further augmented their perquisites. 13 In the days of Ne- 
hemiah a poll tax was collected for the service of the sanc¬ 
tuary. 14 In the times of Jesus in addition to these designated 
donations to the priests, there was a money payment to be 
made in connection with offerings. In the light of these 
facts the growth of the priestly group in numbers, in ex¬ 
clusiveness, in sanctity and in possessions is easily understood. 
Like all priesthoods it enjoyed opportunities for the promo¬ 
tion of its privileges that fell neither to the prophets nor the 
sages. It is evident that in the eyes of men so favored by 
circumstances and growing tradition, the elevation of peo¬ 
ple from the common ranks to the priesthood without war¬ 
rant of custom or even of apology was regarded as nothing 

11 1 Sam. 1:15-17; 12 Deut. 18:3-5; 13 Lev. 7:31-34; 14 Neh. 10:33. 

— 65 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


short of sacrilege. Such was the sin charged against Jero¬ 
boam the rebel king of the northern tribes. 16 

Meantime, the temple was built by Solomon after de¬ 
signs already prepared and with materials already assembled 
by David. Its effect on the religious life of the people was 
almost immediately felt. It greatly enhanced the glory of 
the national religion at the capital, but it served as a magnet 
to draw the priests from the local communities where they 
were most needed to the central sanctuary. Perhaps this was 
what Nathan had feared when he dissuaded David from his 
plan to build a temple* Solomon, more interested in the 
beautification of his capital and less sensitive to the advice 
of the prophets, proceeded with the enterprise. And the re¬ 
sult was inevitable. The local sanctuaries or “ high places,” 
now abandoned by the priests seeking the more congenial 
atmosphere of the temple at Jerusalem, came increasingly 
under the influence of the heathenisms of neighboring peo¬ 
ples. From that time on they became a menace rather than 
an aid to the worship of Jahveh. The prophets regarded 
them with growing aversion. Idolatry was openly intro¬ 
duced in the leading sanctuaries of the north. The priests 
put in charge of them by Jeroboam and his successors were 
untrained and unfit for their task. Henceforth the prophets 
insisted that the high places ought to be suppressed, and 
held against even the best kings of the surviving Judean line 
the reproach that they did not destroy these centers of evil. 16 
It was not until Hezekiah’s time (715-686 b.c.) that a real 

* Read the entire account in i Sam. 7, and notice the tact and diplomacy 
with which the prophet turned the king from his contemplated project. 

16 1 Kings 11:31; 13:33, 34; 16 1 Kings 15:14; 2.1:43; *■ Kings 11:3. 


— 66 — 




Priestly Activities and Literature 


effort was made to exterminate-the village shrines; 17 and, 
though some of them were restored by his idolatrous son 
Manasseh, 18 a definite beginning at reform had been made, 
a beginning which was drastically carried out by Josiah in 
the great reformation, after the discovery of the law book 
with its strict prohibition of any but a central sanctuary. 19 

The development of the priestly laws kept pace with the 
growth of the priestly order. At first these were very sim¬ 
ple. The successive documents which appear in the Hexa- 
teuch, the first six books of the Old Testament, contain each 
of them bodies of law advancing in extent and significance 
as the nation expanded in numbers and culture. The oldest 
of these documents, the Judean, or “ J ” source, has a com¬ 
paratively modest code of laws, suited to a rural and even 
nomadic state of society. This is found in Exodus 34:17-26, 
and is distinctly stated to have been the ten commandments 
written by Moses at the divine dictation.* They are 
quite different from the ten commandments that have be¬ 
come familiar alike to the church and the synagogue. They 
begin with the prohibition of molten images in worship, and 
proceed through the items of the seven days feast of unleav¬ 
ened bread, the demand that all first-born children and ani- 

* The Hebrew records waver between the statement that Moses wrote the 
words of the law (Exod. 24:4; 34:18; Deut. 31114) and insistence upon the fact that 
Jahveh himself wrote them (Exod. 34:11, 18 “written with the finger of God,” 
31:16, “the writing of God,” 34:1; Deut. 5:11; 10:1, 4). This was in harmony 
with the early beliefs of the nations that their laws, the result of custom and the 
organization of tribal morality, were the bestowment of deity. Hammurabi claims 
that he received his code from his god, and the scene on the stele on which they 
arc recorded shows the king in the act of accepting the code from Shamash. The 
varying traditions regarding the writing of the Mosaic institutes indicate the 
different sources of the material. 

17 1 Kings 18 4; 18 1 Kings 11:3; 19 1 Kings 11,13:1-10. 

— 67 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


mals shall be devoted to God, the requirement of a gift on 
appearance at the sanctuary, the seventh day of rest, the feast 
of weeks and of the ingathering, the threefold appearance 
annually of all men before Jahveh, the prohibition of leaven 
with the sacrifices, the presentation of the first fruits of the 
land at the sanctuary, and close with the curious prohibition 
of the superstitious custom of boiling a kid in its mother’s 
milk. These laws must have taken form as early as 850 b.c., 
the date usually assigned to this document, and they may 
have been much earlier. Their ascription to the age and the 
agency of Moses was in keeping with the uniform Hebrew 
tradition regarding their revered leader and teacher.* 

The second code of laws to issue from the priestly ac¬ 
tivity in Israel was contained in the Ephraimite or “E” 
document, dating from about 750 b.c., and found in Exodus 
20-23. This material took form near the time of Amos and 
Hosea and is much more suitable to the developing urban 
life of that age. Its center and nucleus is found in the ten 
commandments in their common form, quite different from 
the earlier pattern of the “ J ” document. And yet they are 


* The relation between the forms of Hebrew law and the code of King 
Hammurabi of Babylon (about 1x50 b.c., fully a thousand years before Moses and 
the Exodus) is not fully known. Behind the Hebrews on their arrival in Canaan 
about 1x50 b.c., there lay long stretches of Semitic law of a highly organized type, 
to say nothing of Egyptian legislation with which they had come into contact, 
and Midianite legal practices (Exod. 18). The code of Hammurabi is more 
elaborate than the combined codes of Israel. It included (1) an introduction on 
evidence and decisions; (x) the laws relating to property, personal and real, and 
to trade; and (3) laws relating to persons, family, injuries, labor and laborers. 
In general the Babylonian code disclosed a more highly developed social and in¬ 
dustrial state than the Hebrew laws. The chief difference consists in the interest 
of the former in trade, commerce, industry and the secular arts, and the latter in 
ethical and humanitarian ideas. Both, of course, contain a considerable amount of 
liturgical and ceremonial direction. 


— 68 — 





Priestly Activities and Literature 


just as explicitly declared to be the commandments of God 
to the people; they are said to have been written by the 
finger of God on the two tablets of stone. 20 This version of 
the commandments is divided into two sections, the first 
dealing with duties to God, 21 and the second with duties to 
one’s fellow-men. 22 The advance over the laws of Exodus 34 
is to be seen not only in this version of the commandments, 
but in the remainder of the laws in the four chapters which 
form the matrix of the decalogue. These are well adapted 
to the changing social order in the times of the first of the 
writing prophets. These two bodies of law and tradition, the 
“ J ” and the “ E,” were apparently combined into one, gen¬ 
erally known as “ JE,” about 650 b.c., and these laws con¬ 
stituting what is known as the “ Book of the Covenant ” 23 
are the first formal legal documents contained in the Old 
Testament. 

The third output of the law-making activity in Israel 
has a romantic interest for the student of the Old Testa¬ 
ment. The Book of the Covenant appears to have met the 
needs of the people for some generations. The days of the 
prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah came and passed. 
The reign of Hezekiah, the reformer and friend of Isaiah, 
gave place to that of Manasseh who turned from the worship 
of Jahveh and set up the abominations of heathenism in 
Jerusalem. His long reign of a half century was a time of 
trouble for the prophets and priests of the orthodox group. 
Hardly a voice was lifted in behalf of the prophetic ideals. 
The sanctuaries all over the country declined from the cus- 

20 Exod. 10:1; cf. Deut. 5:11; 21 Exod. 2.0:3-11; 22 Exod. 10:11-17; 23 Exod. 
10-13, 34. 


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The Bible Through the Centuries 


tomary worship to idolatrous customs brought in from 
neighboring lands. 

The danger to the religion of Jahveh and to the morals 
of the people from this relapse into the pagan cults of the 
outer world pressed upon the spirits of the faithful among 
the priests and prophets who escaped persecution. The need 
of the time was a new law, limiting worship to a central sanc¬ 
tuary where the priestly ministry could be controlled by 
legitimate oversight, and the dangers of a heathen cultus 
could be resisted. Evidently such a work was undertaken. 
But the long reign of Manasseh prevented any effort to 
inaugurate the reforms for which the new law, the expansion 
and reshaping of the Book of the Covenant, prepared the 
way. The generation that formulated the fresh code was 
passing away, and the only plan that appeared practicable 
was to deposit the document in the temple to await a more 
opportune day. 

That day came in the providence of God during the 
reign of the pious king Josiah (639-609 b.c.). In the eight¬ 
eenth year of his reign certain repairs were undertaken in 
the temple at Jerusalem. In the process of their execution 
a roll of law was discovered, which brought surprise and 
consternation to the king and all his court, including Hilkiah 
the head of the priestly order* This book forbade many 
of the practices which had become customary in the land, 
such as the worship at various sanctuaries and the employ- 

* z Kings zz; This narrative includes the first reference in the Old Testa¬ 
ment to a “ high priest. ” Such a functionary was apparently unknown before, 
and even here it may be an editorial addition from the later age of the Priest 
Code when the hierarchy of temple ministers was more elaborately developed 
(Lev. lino, etc.). 


— 70 




Priestly Activities and Literature 


ment of priests not of the strictly Levitical order. Particu¬ 
larly urgent were the prohibitions of the book in reference 
to all idolatrous practices and associations. The king at once 
summoned a convocation of the people and had the new 
document read in their hearing and adopted as the law 
of the state. On the basis of this body of institutes, which 
purported to be the work of Moses, and therefore 
ancient, a drastic reform was instituted and carried out 
through the land from end to end. 24 A covenant was 
made with God, and this “ book of the covenant,” as 
the new law was called, was made sacred and obligatory 
as the embodiment of the divine will. It was probably 
the earliest portion of the Old Testament to be publicly 
recognized as canonical, a writing that could be called holy 
scripture. 

In comparing the description of this discovery and the 
steps that were taken in carrying out its injunctions with the 
historical narratives of the Old Testament, biblical scholars 
have found reason to adopt the view that the book thus 
found was the essential section of our book of Deuter¬ 
onomy, particularly the body of laws contained in that re¬ 
markable work. 25 It is one of the most interesting volumes 
in the Old Testament. It purports to come from Moses in its 
entirety. Its earlier portion is a recital of the story of the 
wanderings of Israel in the wilderness, put into the mouth 
of Moses as an address delivered to the tribes shortly before 
his death, 26 and it may well contain reminiscences of the 
words of that great leader. Then follows the introduction 
to the code of law which is the central purpose of the book, 27 

24 2. Kings 2.3; 26 Deut. iz-2.6; 26 Deut. 1-4; 27 Deut. 5-11. 

— 71 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


and in this section the ten commandments are repeated in 
almost the exact form in which they are given in the “ E ” 
document of Exodus 20. 28 

Then comes the code itself, with its many expansions 
and revisions of the ancient Book of the Covenant, of Exodus 
20-23 and 34, the laws of “ JE.” Careful comparison makes 
it quite evident that while they are based upon the same 
general principles of religious instruction, they differ radi¬ 
cally in their injunctions, and there was ample cause for the 
surprise and alarm of Josiah and his advisers upon their dis¬ 
covery. The last portion of the book is devoted to urgent 
admonitions regarding the observance of the commands of 
the code, with threats in case of disobedience, and rewards 
for fidelity; 29 and it closes with the two poems, the “ Song ” 
and the “ Blessing of Moses,” and the account of his last 
days and death. 30 

The unknown priests and prophets of the dark days of 
Manasseh used well the material at their disposal, instituting 
such reforms as could alone save the state from religious 
collapse, and employing everywhere the name of the revered 
Moses, whom they felt they were reinterpreting to the nation 
in the new emergency, and whose authority alone could vali¬ 
date the new legislation. The success of that reform which 
began with the discovery of the roll in 621 b.c. was complete 
for a time. The feast of the Passover was kept in accord¬ 
ance with the Deuteronomic rules, 31 the local sanctuaries 
were abolished, and worship was restricted to the temple in 
Jerusalem. The unfortunate death of the king however 

28 Dcut. 5:6-11; 29 Deut. 17-31; 30 Deut. 31-34; 31 1 Kings 13:11-13; cf. 
Deut. 16:1-8. 


—72— 




Priestly Activities and Literature 


either in parley or battle with Necho, the pharaoh of Egypt, 
at Megiddo, 32 put an end to all the hopes of the reforming 
party and invited that decline in statesmanship and religion 
which brought on the catastrophes of 597 and 586 b.c., the 
siege and the destruction of the capital and a further stage 
in the great dispersion that began with the overthrow of 
the northern kingdom a century and a half before. The 
laws of Deuteronomy were well adapted to the age but they 
came too late to save the nation. 

Nevertheless they were the accepted norm of conduct 
and the model for the worship if only there had been any 
temple left. Their application to personal, domestic and 
community life was accepted and enforced to some extent 
by the scattered remnants of the people in Palestine, Baby¬ 
lonia and Egypt. Without a central government to claim 
their loyalty however, the inroads of heathenism were con¬ 
stant and disastrous. Those who were faithful to the teach¬ 
ings of the past were few as compared with those who re¬ 
lapsed. Ezekiel, a prophet of priestly training, one of the 
exiles in the town of Tel-abib in southern Babylonia, under¬ 
took to keep his fellow exiles true to the law of God, and 
projected a revised law based on Deuteronomy but expanded 
in its liturgical demands, much as Deuteronomy had been an 
expansion of the older Book of the Covenant. His code of 
law 33 was based upon an ideal reconstruction of Jerusalem 
to follow the return to the holy city and the reorganization 
of the land and the nation. This code (c. 572 b.c.) never 
came into actual use, but it showed the direction in which 
consecrated men were working in the surviving Hebrew 

3 2 z Kings 2.3 2.9, 30; 33 Ezek. 40-48. 


— 73 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


communities to keep alive their religion and to prepare for 
better times. 

About 397 b.c. one of these Hebrew teachers, a scribe 
named Ezra brought to Jerusalem from the east a copy of 
a new and still more expanded law based on Deuteronomy 
but much more elaborate in its regulations. 34 This was 
the Priest Code, the most extensive of all the codes de¬ 
veloped during the history of Old Testament times. It is 
found in the latter half of the book of Exodus, in Leviticus 
and Numbers. It is much more detailed and exact in its 
specifications regarding the priestly order and its ministries. 
Soon afterwards the narrative portions of the priestly docu¬ 
ment, or “ P,” were written, such as the account of creation 
in Genesis i, and presently (probably about 250 b.c.) the en¬ 
tire body of priestly writing was compiled in a collection 
which the Jews called the Torah, and which later genera¬ 
tions came to call the Pentateuch and attributed entire to 
the hand of Moses. 

In addition to these priestly institutes or laws, there was 
also prepared a body of priestly narratives of the past, the 
books of Chronicles, with their supplemental material in 
the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These record many of 
the events of the earlier history, parallel to the prophetic 
records in Samuel and Kings, but in the priestly spirit and 
with particular emphasis upon the liturgical, ceremonial 
and ecclesiastical features of the national experience. These 
books are among the latest in the Old Testament, bringing 
the story down to the times of Alexander the Great.* 

* Jaddua (Nch. n:n) was in office at the time of the visit of Alexander the 
Great to Jerusalem in 331 b.c. 34 Ezra 7:1-10,14,15. 


74 — 




Priestly Activities and Literature 


It will thus be seen that the priestly laws of Israel, 
far from being the product of a single mind or the output 
of one age, were a gradual development and took new and 
expanded forms as occasion required. Probably at the first 
they were passed about in oral form. Writing was a diffi¬ 
cult and little practiced art. Perhaps the decalogues, the 
favorite form of primitive laws, were the first to be written 
and their commitment to writing was the result of their 
frequent repetition. Writing came into more common use 
with the downfall of the Hebrew state at the destruction 
of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The scattered groups of 
Hebrews needed some means of communication. Written 
records of past national events were needed. Men of priestly 
training now that the temple was no more turned to scribal 
activity and commentation upon the law. Out of this as 
time passed grew the great body of discussion and revision 
known as the Talmud, the sacred book of Judaism. The 
Hebrew state was no more. The Hebrew race passed away 
with its classic tongue. The new age brought into being 
the Jewish synagogue, with a new speech, a new form of 
religion, and a new literature. 

The laws of Israel passed through the inevitable stages 
of the nation’s changing life. At first there were the 
nomadic laws of the desert experiences and the first years 
in Canaan. Then there came the early agricultural age, 
the period during which the native Canaanite population 
was being absorbed with its speech, its customs, its arts, and 
not a little of its religion. That may have lasted until the 
times of Ahab, about 875 b.c. Then came the prophetic 
period from the days of Amos to the end of the Hebrew 


-75- 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


state, the age of the ethical, humanitarian and spiritual 
teachings of the great prophets. This gave place in the 
days of the great dispersion to the development of phi¬ 
losophy, speculation, liturgical and ceremonial features of 
a growing ecclesiastical institution, and the end of the 
period witnessed the close of the Old Testament canon. 

From that time onward there took form the de¬ 
velopment of the oral law, the schools of the scribes, the rise 
and expansion of Judaism, and the final phase of legal com¬ 
mentation in the Mishnah and the Gamara. By that time 
two rival faiths, Christianity and Judaism, were competing 
for their respective interpretations of the teachings of the 
Old Testament. 


-76- 




VI 

THE SAGES AND THE 
WISDOM WRITINGS 


Of the various orders of teachers among the Hebrews, 
the prophets, the priests and the sages, the last were the 
least conspicuous, and the writings preserved from their 
hands the fewest in number. Yet they were not without 
importance in the ethical and intellectual life of the nation. 
Among them were teachers in such schools as took form, 
perhaps suggested at first by the schools of the prophets. 
Others of them were counselors who gave advice on sub¬ 
jects of interest to their clients. In this regard one of their 
functions was much like that of the modern attorney. They 
were usually found in the gates of the cities, where people 
gathered for barter and conversation. 

The Hebrews can hardly be said to have had a formal 
philosophy, but the problems of experience came up for 
reflective consideration, and the sages were the men most 
likely to be interested in such discussions. They were the 
humanists of the time. They were less interested in the 
matters of ritual than the priests, or in the preaching of 
religion than the prophets. They were less nationalistic 
than either of these orders. Their horizons were broader 
than the land of Palestine. The things that stimulated their 
thought were the common experiences of mankind, the 
questions of good and evil, success and failure. Perhaps 


~77 — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


this was as near to a philosophy as Israel ever came during 
the classic age. They were the men whose utterances pro¬ 
voked their hearers to reflection. “ The words of the wise 
are as goads,” said one of their number; and in commenting 
on the value of the groups of proverbs which they gathered 
and taught, he added, “ collections which are given by one 
teacher are like nails driven with a sledge.” 1 

Probably it was in the making and teaching of proverbs, 
bits of truth attractive in form and valuable in substance, 
that these men had their chief value. Proverbs have been 
defined as the wit of one man and the wisdom of many. 
As matter of fact they do not come from any one source, 
but are the result of daily contact with affairs, and make 
their impression because of the attractive form in which 
they are expressed. They are like pebbles that are smoothed 
by being passed about. Such bits of wit and wisdom ap¬ 
pealed to the wise and were gathered up by them for pur¬ 
poses of teaching. Out of such interest came the collections 
which went to make up the book of Proverbs. Its form 
shows that it was assembled in different bundles of sayings, 
and at last put together into one volume. This book is 
the primary and in some regards the most characteristic 
body of the wisdom writings. It contains an immense 
number of suggestive reflections upon life. It is a manual 
of sensible conduct. It must have had large influence over 
the behavior of all classes. It has been found of high edu¬ 
cational value in all the centuries since it was published. 

Most nations have had their wise men, from whom 
they received, or to whom they ascribed, their best interpre- 

1 Eccl. iz:ii. 

-78- 






The Sages and the Wisdom Writings 


tations of life. Such sages are to be encountered in the pages 
of history all the way from Confucius to Benjamin Franklin. 
Among the Hebrews, Solomon held this place. Tradition 
affirmed that he was a shrewd observer of nature, a discern¬ 
ing judge of human motives, a poet of skill, and a maker 
of proverbs. 2 For this reason there grew up the tradition 
that he was the author of the entire anthology of proverbs, 
and the book has usually borne the title of the Proverbs 
of Solomon. In this regard the relation of the wise king 
to the book would be much like that of Moses to the various 
codes of law, or of David to the Psalms, the relation of a 
common denominator or ideal oracle rather than of an 
author. 

Of the different collections of brief and sententious 
sayings of which the book is composed, perhaps the oldest 
is that found in chapters 25-29. These are given the title 
of the Proverbs of Solomon edited by the Scribes of King 
Hezekiah. Second in point of age would seem to be the 
list included in chapters 10:1-22:16, which are called the 
Proverbs of Solomon. Then there follows a wisdom epistle 
called the Words of the Wise, 3 to which there is ap¬ 
pended a postscript, with the heading, These also are the 
Sayings of the Wise. 4 Probably at this stage of the edi¬ 
torial process the first nine chapters of the book were com¬ 
posed as an introduction, with their personifications of 
Wisdom and Folly as the contrasted beings who invite men 
respectively to good and evil. In the age in which the 
Proverbs were finally edited and put into their present form, 
“ Folly ” might well stand to the wise of Israel as the term 

2 1 Kings 4:2.9—34; 3 Prov. 21:17-24:11; 4 Prov. 24:13-34. 


— 79 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


for the new Greek speculations intruding into Palestine, 
and “ Wisdom ” for the older, more conservative and ortho¬ 
dox ways of thinking. Later still there were appended 
the three fragments, the Words of Agur, 5 the Words 
of King Lemuel, 6 and the acrostic poem in praise of the 
Perfect Woman. 7 

In form the proverbs are mostly couplets, in which the 
second line reinforces the first by repeating the sentiment 
in other words, or by presenting a contrast or alternative, 
or by adding a fresh idea. For the most part the proverbs 
are held together rather by similarity of form than by 
sequence of ideas. Except in the few instances where a 
cluster of such sayings is devoted to a single thought, there 
is no connection discoverable. They could be given a dif¬ 
ferent order without loss of value. Aside from the single 
couplet form, one finds epigrams, sonnets and proverb 
clusters. Among the most interesting of these slightly 
longer examples are the number sonnets, or riddle proverbs, 
that must have been the means both of instruction and 
amusement. 8 

Among the many subjects which engaged the attention 
of the wise, and found pungent comment in their proverbs, 
were indolence, intemperance, lust, suretyship, anger, hasty 
speech, thoughtlessness, lack of respect for age and author¬ 
ity, and the corresponding virtues which they commended. 

By far the greatest of the works produced by the sages 
of Israel was the book of Job. It holds an enduring place 
among the world’s masterpieces of literature. Its theme is 
the problem of suffering, the age-old inquiry as to why good 

8 Prov. 30; 6 Prov. 31:1-9; 7 Prov. 31:10-31; 8 Prov. 30:15-31. 


— 80 — 




The Sages and the Wisdom Writings 


people are so frequently the victims of evil fortune. If 
the world is the domain of righteous government, and if 
an omnipotent God is ruling in love, why should there be 
such tragedies of suffering where no corresponding guilt 
is apparent? This problem was not confined to Israel. It 
is universal in human experience. But it became more 
acute among the Hebrews in the days when their national 
career was destroyed by the overthrow of Jerusalem in 
586 b.c., and the continuity of their clan and family life 
was ruined by dispersion. 

The sages must have had many things to say to in¬ 
quirers on this difficult theme. But the most impressive of 
their messages is found in this book of Job. There is no hint 
given as to its authorship. It is one of a number of books 
in both the Old Testament and the New whose writers 
arc unknown. The book of Job was not even attributed to 
Solomon, which seems strange, in consideration of the 
fact that most of the wisdom material was credited to him. 
The author, or authors, of the book made use of an old 
tradition about a certain Job who though a man of piety 
and wisdom suffered a series of unaccountable misfortunes. 
He was classed with other worthies of ancient days like 
Noah and Daniel, by Ezekiel, who wrote many years be¬ 
fore the date of the book. 9 There are various indications 
that the work is not literal history, though it probably has 
a foundation of fact. 

The volume falls into five sections, of which the first 
and last are in prose, the remainder in poetry. In the 
prologue 10 the stage is set for the drama which is to be 
5 >Ezck. 14:14, io; 10 Job 1, 1. 

-81- 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


enacted, and in interviews between God and the Satan or 
official who is responsible for Job’s district, it is decided 
that the question of the piety and disinterested devotion of 
this good man shall be tested by a series of losses that strip 
him of his property and culminate in his complete social and 
physical ruin. He stands the tests, and, quite unaware of 
the reason for his tragic fate, maintains his faith in God. 
His three friends who hold unwaveringly to the orthodoxy 
of the time, come to comfort him, but at the same time are 
convinced that he must have been guilty of some great 
sin or he would not be reduced to his pitiful condition. 
The body of the book is taken up with the great debate 
between Job, who insists on his integrity, and the friends 
who attempt to convert him to their view and induce him 
to confess his sin and secure forgiveness. 11 

When the debate with its three cycles of speeches has 
come to an end, a bystander, Elihu, takes up the discussion, 
without, however, adding greatly to its value, or reaching 
any clear conclusion. Neither Job nor his friends pay any 
serious heed to this new disputant. 12 But the Voice of 
the Lord breaks in upon them from the midst of a storm 
and brings the controversy to its close, not by giving an 
answer to the problem of evil, but by widening the scope of 
the debate to include the vast field of good, in comparison 
with which evil has but a limited place in the world. 13 
The book ends with the prose epilogue in which Job is 
commended for his audacity in questioning the ways of 
Providence, and thus laying the foundation for a firmer 
faith. Obviously the book of Job is not the final answer 
11 Job 3--31; 12 Job 31-37; 13 Job 38-41. 

-82- 





The Sages and the Wisdom Writings 


to the problem of suffering. It is not even the best answer 
that the Old Testament offers. For that answer one must 
look to the prophets and to the New Testament. But the 
book provides an important contribution to the subject, 
and in the process furnishes some of the noblest poetry 
to be found in any language. 

The book of Ecclesiastes is the third contribution from 
the schools of the sages to the literature of the Old Testa¬ 
ment. It provides the reader with two serious questions 
at the very start. One is, why a book that is so manifestly 
heterodox and unchurchly should bear the almost clerical 
name by which it is known. The other is, how a book so 
pessimistic and skeptical ever got into the canon of holy 
Scripture. The first is easily answered. The title is a bad 
translation of the Hebrew word Koheleth, which means not 
a preacher or ecclesiastic in any sense, but a teacher, a sum- 
moner of groups of students, the master of a school. The 
second question is not so easy to answer. Perhaps it was 
thought by the editors who gathered the books of the Old 
Testament into a canon or authenticated list that because 
the book was written in Hebrew it should be included. 
Or it may be they believed that the negative utterances in 
it were sufficiently answered by its more positive words. At 
all events, the book is in the biblical collection, and forms 
a masterful if not a fully conclusive contribution to the 
debates of the wise. 

It presents a point of view much in vogue during the 
late days of the Greek period in Palestine. It represents a 
school of thought which had largely lost its grip on the 
essentials of the national faith. It is thoroughly pessimistic 

— 83 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


throughout. In a world as bad as this, what is to be done 
to make life decently tolerable ? In order to make his argu¬ 
ment a little more vivid and personal, the author assumes 
the character of the ancient king Solomon, and proceeds 
from his point of view to discuss the various ways in which 
satisfaction might be attained. After picturing the experi¬ 
ments that a king might try in the search for happiness, he 
dismisses them all, and with them the mask of Solomon, 
and concludes that all is in vain. Life is at best a circle 
in which there is nothing new or of value. The best that 
can be done is to accept the inevitable, avoid excess, be con¬ 
tent with what one has, and prepare for the end. There 
is no encouragement to the life of the voluptuary, for that 
misses the very satisfactions which the habits of self-restraint 
secure. But there is nothing else to be hoped. Death ends 
all, and the current speculations in that field are futile. 
Along the way the author gathers up many gems of wis¬ 
dom, after the manner of his class. His comments on the 
social order of his time are caustic and revealing. The 
final chapter, on the coming of old age, is one of the most 
beautiful in the Bible. The conclusion of the entire dis¬ 
cussion is, Fear God and live according to his laws. This 
is all there is of life. For God brings everything to the 
test of values day by day, whether good or evil. Of course 
the answer to such a negative work as Koheleth is to be 
found in the great affirmations of the books of faith like 
Deuteronomy, Isaiah, the Psalms and the late work known 
as the Wisdom of Solomon. They will always have the 
final word in the auditing of the moral values of the Old 
Testament. 


84 





The Sages and the Wisdom Writings 


If the lovely little book of Canticles, the Song of Songs, 
be regarded as a drama, as some biblical students have re¬ 
garded it, it would fall to the collection of the wisdom books, 
as the discussion of the problem of human love; the question 
whether there is a quality of love between man and woman 
so strong and pure that flattery cannot seduce it and gold 
cannot buy it. Arranged in dramatic form, the book yields 
this meaning and presents in dim outline the story of a 
maiden whom king Solomon sought to win from her lover 
by the seductions and luxuries of the court, only to find 
her impregnable to his flatteries and desirous only of re¬ 
turning to her rustic betrothed. Most modern critics how¬ 
ever regard the book as a collection of charming love songs, 
perhaps intended for use at wedding feasts. 

There were later books of the general type of the 
wisdom literature which are not included in the canon of 
the Old Testament, but are found in the apocrypha. They 
are closely related to those already named, but differ chiefly 
in the fact that they were written in Greek rather than 
Hebrew. Perhaps for this reason they were deemed un¬ 
suitable for embodiment in the collection of Scripture. 
These books are the so-called Wisdom of Solomon, a 
pseudonymous work of the first half of the first century 
b.c., and the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, commonly 
known as Ecclesiasticus. The former received its name 
from the fact that, like the book of Proverbs, it lays claim 
in several places to Solomonic authorship. Its later char¬ 
acter is apparent however. Its purpose is to affirm the wis¬ 
dom of God as embodied in the Jewish religion; and in its 
loyalty to the faith and institutions of Israel it affords, 

-85- 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


whether consciously or otherwise, an answer and corrective 
to the doubt and pessimism of Ecclesiastes. In its emphasis 
upon the essentials of religion, and its encouragement to the 
faithful in the midst of opposition from the hellenizing 
spirit of the age, it is worthy of a place in the Old Testament 
canon, and of the study of students of the Scriptures. 

The other book, the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, 
was originally written in Hebrew, but was translated into 
Greek by the author’s grandson, who wrote an introduction 
in which he said that his grandfather, having given himself 
much to the reading of “ the law and the prophets and the 
other books” (the popular threefold classification of the 
Old Testament in the late pre-Christian centuries), was 
led to write “ somewhat pertaining to instruction and wis¬ 
dom,” in order that those who love learning might make 
better progress by living according to the law. The Hebrew 
original was all but lost for many centuries, and the Greek 
translation afforded the only knowledge of the work. But 
in 1896 a portion of the Hebrew text was discovered, and 
since that time thirty-nine of the fifty-one chapters have 
been recovered. Like Proverbs it treats of many themes 
in the style of the wisdom writings, and deals chiefly with 
the problems of daily life encountered by people of all classes. 
It contains a rich store of ethical and religious counsel. 


— 86 — 






VII 

THE PRAYERS AND PRAISES 
OF ISRAEL 

An essential feature of all religious service is music. 
Much of this is instrumental and has been so since the 
days of reed pipe and tom-tom worship. From the simplest 
beginnings of musical performance up to the elaborate ren¬ 
derings of orchestra and organ, instruments have had an 
important part in the ritual of all the faiths. 

But far more impressive has been the singing function 
in worship. The human voice, aided by musical devices 
of many sorts or quite without their help, has carried on the 
ministry of praise and prayer in all lands. And for the 
most part the words have been taken from the literature of 
devotion which occupies so large a place among the sacred 
writings of all systems of belief. 

All the religions that have attained a measurable cul¬ 
tural level have produced hymns in celebration of their 
deities, and in the utterance of the sentiments inspired by 
their holy men. Much of the religious literature of an¬ 
tiquity consists of hymns. Among the Egyptians, Assyrians, 
Persians, Greeks and Romans there were gradually gathered 
collections of chants, invocations, poems of adoration and 
recitals in honor of the gods, confessions of sin and prayers 
for forgiveness and divine aid. The Vedic scriptures, the 

-87- 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


classic literature of the early Aryans in India, were hymns 
in honor of the nature gods of their pantheon. 

Because of the fact that the common element in all re¬ 
ligious expression is worship of the Unseen and Eternal, 
it is natural that the hymns of faith among all races and 
in all lands should express the elemental sense of reverence 
and offer petition for the common needs. Whatever vari¬ 
eties of belief, ritual, or organization the various ethnic re¬ 
ligious groups may disclose, in their formal worship and 
their use of hymns and chants they come very near one 
another, for they express the common sentiments of the 
devout life. 

In the western world of Europe and America the chief 
work of devotion is the book of Psalms, the collection of 
prayers and praises composed by poets of the Hebrew race 
during several centuries, and gathered for the liturgical 
uses of the second temple in the sixth and succeeding cen¬ 
turies before the Christian era. In many ways this is the 
most impressive and influential hymn book in the history 
of religion. It is not strange therefore that to a notable 
degree the hymns of all the later and related faiths show 
its impress and reveal its spirit. And this is but to say that 
they all share the elemental values of that ancient spirit 
of worship and unite at that high level. 

The most prized of all the sections of the Old Testament 
is this book of Psalms. While in the thought of the Hebrew 
people it did not possess that extraordinary sanctity which 
attached to the Torah, the five books of the law, yet it 
occupied a position of the highest regard with readers of 
the Scriptures, both in the Jewish and the early Christian 





The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


communities. It was the hymn book of the second temple, 
the one built under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, 
520-516 b.c. From that time onward it took its place as 
the book of worship among the Hebrews of Old Testament 
times, the Jews in the Graeco-Roman world, and the Chris¬ 
tians of the New Testament age. And it has been either the 
actual hymn collection or the chief source of the hymnology 
of all sections of Christendom. 

Its high position in the esteem of the editors of the Old 
Testament is shown by the fact that it was placed at the 
head of the general division of the Writings of the Hebrew 
scriptures. The Jews divided the holy books into three 
groups, the Torah which included the five books of Moses, 
called the Pentateuch; the Nebiim, or Prophets, including 
the earlier and later works of that class; and the Kethubim, 
or Writings, the miscellaneous books left over from the first 
two divisions. At the head of the dozen books included 
in this section the book of Psalms was placed, and its name 
was usually applied to that entire group of writings. When 
Jesus spoke of the three parts of the Hebrew Scriptures he 
named them as “ the law of Moses, the Prophets and the 
Psalms.” 1 

Like the hymns of all religions and all the centuries 
the psalms were composed by all kinds of people and 
through all the periods of the national history of Israel.* 

* As in the case of the Vedic hymns, some of which were composed by poets 
at the behest of wealthy patrons of the shrines and were presented as votive 
offerings, so some of the psalms may have had a like professional origin, and 
served, like the altar paintings of the middle ages, as contributions to the wor¬ 
ship of the sanctuary. Such a psalm as the 119th may have been a work of this 
vicarious and artistic type. 

1 Luke 14:44. 


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The Bible Through the Centuries 


Some of them were as old as the time of David whose 
name is traditionally connected with the collection, and 
some of them show evidence of coming from the very 
late years of the pre-Christian age. Events occurring at 
various times through the Hebrew centuries are mentioned 
in the Psalms and make clear their relations to the national 
experiences. There was no special order or guild devoted 
to the making or compilation of psalms, as in the cases of 
the prophetic, priestly and wisdom writings. Yet since these 
hymns were employed in the worship at the temple it is 
probable that those groups of Levites particularly devoted 
to the service of the sanctuary had a larger part in the 
creation of the songs of worship than any other single 
class. 2 But the contents of the hymns show that they 
arose out of many different periods and many diverse kinds 
of experience.* 

The book of Psalms as we have it includes one hundred 
and fifty poems. It is divided into five sections, perhaps 
after the analogy of the five books of the law. In the revised 
and modern speech versions of the Old Testament these 
divisions are marked off by separating spaces. The first 
division includes Psalms 1-41; the second, 42-72; the third, 
73-89; the fourth, 90-106; the fifth, 107-150. Each of these 


* It is not unlikely that in the early period the hymns were accompanied 
with dancing as a form of religious expression. The well-known instance of 
David’s transfer of the ark to Jerusalem is an example (z Sam. 6:14). Several of 
the psalms reveal the antiphonal form and other adaptations to the ballad dance 
and dramatic representation (Exod. 15 :zo; Judg. 5; 1 Sam. 18:6,7; Ps. z, Z4,118, etc.). 
It may be that there was an element of sympathetic magic in the dances and other 
posturings that accompanied various kinds of poetic recitation in the hope that 
these exercises might aid in the attainment of the worshiper’s desires. 

2 1 Chron. Z5 :i- 8; cf. the superscriptions of Pss. 73-88. 


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The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


divisions ends with a doxology which is not a part of the 
psalm but is the appropriate close of the section. These 
doxologies are usually marked by an Amen, a double Amen 
or Hallelujah (Praise ye Jahveh). Students of the book 
have been impressed by the fact that some of these divisions 
use predominantly the divine name Jahveh (Lord, as in 
the first section) and some the name Elohim (God, as 
in the second section). It is probable that the relative age 
of the various sections may be indicated in this manner. 

Casual readers of the Psalms probably pay little atten¬ 
tion to the superscriptions, the brief notes that in many cases 
follow the psalm numbers. Yet these notices are of real 
interest to the attentive reader. They undertake to give 
information regarding one or more of several features con¬ 
nected with the individual psalm or its use in the worship. 
Seventy-two of the hundred and fifty psalms are assigned in 
some manner to David. The words “ to David,” the usual 
form of this ascription, may mean that it was the belief of 
the editors who arranged the collection and wrote the super¬ 
scription that David was the composer, or that the psalm 
was derived from some earlier collection that was ascribed 
“ to David.” The relation of David to the Psalter appears 
to have rested on the tradition of his early minstrelsy and 
his later interest in the service of the sanctuary. 3 His 
authorship of any considerable number of the psalms seems 
more than doubtful. As in the case of the relation of Moses 
to the law, and of Solomon to the wisdom books, so that 
of David to the psalms would seem to have been ideal and 
traditional rather than actual. 


3 i Sam. 16:14-13; i Sam. 6:1-5; Amos 6:5. 

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The Bible Through the Centuries 


The superscriptions, which were not a part of the 
original psalms, and were indeed written in a later dialect, 
present the opinions of editors on various matters connected 
with the poems. Authorship is one of them. Another is 
the fact that many of the hymns were evidently copied from 
a collection labeled “ the choirmaster’s copy,” or “ to the 
chief musician.” Other items recorded are the kind of 
instruments used for an accompaniment (“ on stringed in¬ 
struments,” “ on wind instruments ”), or the kind of voices 
(“ the maidens,” “ the eighth,” octave, basses), or the name 
of the tune (“ the stag at dawn,” “ the lily of testimony,” or 
“do not destroy”). Others give an intimation as to the 
nature of the psalm, as a meditation, a prayer or a song. 
And quite a number, particularly in the earlier divisions, 
provide suggestions regarding the supposed origin of the 
poem or its use on special occasions. 

The stanza structure of many of the psalms is obvious. 
In other instances it is emphasized by the word Selah 
which seems to have marked, at the places where it has 
survived, the end of stanzas where the voices paused and 
the instruments continued with an interlude. In other 
cases the stanzas are separated by refrains, as in Psalms 
42-43, 46 and 136. In some instances the psalms are com¬ 
posed on an acrostic plan, the verses beginning with the 
successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This arrange¬ 
ment is not evident in the ordinary English versions, except 
in the case of Psalm 119 where eight verses are devoted to 
each letter* 

* In The Old Testament — an American Translation by Professor J. M. P. 
Smith and others, such Psalms as 9,10,15, 34, in, 112., and 145, as well as 119, are 
shown in their acrostic form. 


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The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


The themes with which the psalms deal are many, 
covering the entire range of the religious life. Naturally 
the hymns of worship are the more numerous, as they would 
be likely to be in such a collection. Such great anthems 
of praise as 84, “ How lovely are thy dwellings,” 103, “ Bless 
the Lord, O my soul,” and others like 95, 96, 100 and 145 
are unforgettable. The nature psalms reveal a great love 
of the outer world as the handiwork of God, and Psalms 8, 
“ O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name,” 19, “ The 
heavens declare the glory of God,” 29, the thunderstorm, and 
104, the loveliness of Palestine, are examples of this sentiment. 
The entire extent of the national history was swept by the 
psalms, either in actual description or in editorial assign¬ 
ment. To Moses was traditionally credited Psalm 90, that 
hymn of the ages that has found its way into every ritual 
for the dead. Events all the way through the life of David, 
especially his war song, 4 were used as the nails on which 
psalms were hung by later tradition. The second Psalm 
seems to find its place at the time of the coronation of some 
young king in Zion. Psalm 45 is a beautiful wedding hymn 
in celebration of a royal marriage with a princess of Tyre. 
Psalms 46 and 48 are appropriate to such an event as the 
deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib the Assyrian in 
701 b.c. Psalms 42 and 43, which were apparently com¬ 
posed as one, tell of the departure of exiles across the 
spurs of Lebanon on their way toward the East, and 
137 reveals their varied moods after arrival in the distant 
land. Something of the joy of return to Jerusalem and of 


* Ps. 18; cf. z Sam. n. 


—93 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


later journeys to the holy city is disclosed in the “ Songs 
of Ascents,” 120-134.* 

Many different moods are expressed in these outpour¬ 
ings of human souls. In some there is the cry of distress, 
as in 6 and 22. Some like 32 and 51 express the feeling of 
penitence so earnestly that they have become the world’s 
confessional. In some, such as 27, 34, 62, 63, and 91, the 
sentiment of trust in God reaches the sublimest levels to 
be found in any literature of devotion. In others, like 73, 
the problem of doubt and its solution are recorded. The 
fool’s creed and the psalmist’s comment upon it are the 
theme of 14 and its duplicate, 53. Reverence for such por¬ 
tions of the Scriptures as had taken form in the days of 
the psalmists is the topic of several of the hymns, notably 
19:7-14 and 119. The ideal king is described in 72 and no, 
psalms that have a more ideal and messianic significance 
than any rulers of David’s line achieved. The upright man, 
the suitable citizen for the holy city, is described in 1, 15 and 
24:1-6. Psalm 67 is often referred to as the missionary 
Psalm. And in 139, the hymn of the pursuing God — which 
reaches its climax in the paragraph beginning “Whither 
shall I go from thy spirit ? ” — the Psalter reaches its su¬ 
preme utterance.! 

The place of the Psalms in history is significant. Some 
of these immortal songs are associated forever with certain 
characters or episodes in the life of religion. Psalm 46 re- 

* Various periods of the national history are reviewed in such poems as 
78, 80, 81, 83, 105, 106, 107, 108 and 114, while such laments as 44, 74, and 79 
may come from as late a period as the dark days of Syrian oppression. 

f The poem, The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson is to a certain de¬ 
gree a paraphrase of this Psalm. 


94 — 




The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


calls the name of Luther and is the basis of his well-known 
hymn, “ Ein feste burg ist unser Gott.” “ Let God arise, and 
let his enemies be scattered,” 6 was Cromwell’s battle hymn. 
A turning point in the history of Europe, the defeat of the 
Turks besieging Vienna in 1683, was celebrated by the vic¬ 
torious John Sobieski, king of Poland, whose army chanted 
his battle song, “ Non nobis, Domine.” 6 When St. John of 
the Cross was dying, and was told by his friends that he had 
but a few hours of life, he repeated the words of Psalm 122, 
“ I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house 
of the Lord.” * 

It would be interesting, of course, if we could know 
more about the original composers of the Psalms, and the cir¬ 
cumstances in which they were first uttered. But this is 
impossible. The traditions regarding their authorship are 
only remote conjectures, excepting the possibility of David’s 
connection with some few of them. But in this regard they 
share the anonymous estate of many other portions of the 
Bible, and must be valued not for any traditions of author¬ 
ship, but for their own intrinsic worth. Whatever may have 
been their original creation, we prize them not alone for 
their native sentiments, but as well by reason of their freight¬ 
age of the prayers and tears, the joys and sorrows of all 
the generations of suffering and rejoicing saints through 
whose souls they have passed and whose lives they have 
enriched. We need no history or commentation to make 
clear the meaning of such undying words as, “ Create in 

* See Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life , and Ker, The Psalms in History 
and Biography. 

6 Ps. 68; 6 Ps. 115. 


— 95 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


me a clean heart, O God,” or “ The Lord is my Shep¬ 
herd” 

There are psalms without the knowledge of which no 
child should be permitted to grow up. They are among the 
priceless treasures of literature. Such poems as Psalms i, 
8,15,19,23,24,42,43,46,67, 72,84,90, 91,100,103,121, and 
others that the individual preference may choose, ought to 
be committed to memory. This can be done almost without 
effort in early life, and will prove one of the most satisfying 
and inspiring possessions of later years. 

Such songs have power to quiet the restless pulse of care, 
And come like the benediction that follows after prayer. 

Judaism accepted the Psalms as its collection of hymns. 
From the temple service they were taken over to the syna¬ 
gogue. In daily prayers of morning and evening they have 
the chief place. The special prayers for the Sabbaths and the 
festivals are taken from the Psalter. The Hallels, the greater 
and the lesser, are derived directly from the Hebrew anthol- 
ogy of prayer. 

The early Christian church depended almost entirely 
upon the Psalms for its songs of worship. Most of the first 
Christians were Jews, familiar with the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament, and by the time the new faith reached the wider 
portions of the Graeco-Roman world those writings had 
become classic among its confessors, and those hymns formed 
the appropriate vehicle for religious expression. Gradually 
Christian hymns took form. Some of them are found in the 
New Testament, such as the Ave Maria, 7 the Magnificat, 8 

7 Luke 1 :x8; 8 Luke 1 .'46-55. 

— 96 — 




The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


the Nunc Dimittis, 9 the Benedictus 10 and the Gloria in Ex- 
celsis. 11 Twice in the Pauline writings mention is made of 
the occasions of Christian worship in which are used “ psalms, 
and hymns and spiritual songs.” 12 But manifestly the 
Psalms had the first place in the music of the new society. 
It was inevitable therefore that the thought of the church 
and the synagogue should be measurably unified on the great 
themes of the holy life by the use of a common vehicle 
of service. 

The Christian churches of all communions have been 
deeply influenced by this ancient and venerable anthology. 
Not a little of the musical service of the Greek and Latin 
churches has been taken directly from the Psalms. The 
great hymns, In te, Domine, Speravi, 13 Benedicam Do¬ 
mino, 14 Miserere mei, Deus, 15 Venite, exultemus, 16 Non 
nobis, Domine, 17 and De Profundis 18 are examples of the 
many drafts made by the church upon this rich store of sa¬ 
cred song. And it must not be forgotten that some com¬ 
munions have until recently confined their hymnody entirely 
to the Psalms. The Greek chant, Kyrie eleison, “ Lord, have 
mercy upon us,” which has found its way into the liturgies 
of the Roman, the Anglican and other churches, is taken of 
course from the Psalms, where it may be found in several 
variant forms. 

More interesting still is the fact that many of the familiar 
hymns are derived from this great collection, and their com¬ 
position by authors from different communions has not 
hindered their common use by worshipers of all Christian 

9 Luke 2.2.9-31; 10 Luke 1:68-79; 11 Luke. 2.114; 12 Cf. Col. 3 :i6; 13 Ps. 
31; 14 Ps. 34; 15 Ps. 15; 16 Ps. 95; 17 Ps. 115; 18 Ps. 130. 


— 97“ 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


bodies. This has been a notable contribution to unity of 
thought and interest in the churches. The well-known 
Shepherd Psalm, the twenty-third, has been the inspiration 
and basis of at least a dozen hymns in constant use. Among 
them are “The Lord is my Shepherd, no want shall I 
know,” by James Montgomery of the Moravian Church; 
“ The King of love my Shepherd is,” by Sir Henry W. Baker, 
an Anglican; and “ Though faint, yet pursuing,” by John N. 
Darby, a Congregationalist. The nineteenth Psalm, almost 
as familiar, is found in almost as many forms in our hymn 
books, and by authors as widely distributed by denomina¬ 
tional relations. One hardly needs to be reminded of the 
song of Isaac Watts, the English Independent, “ The heavens 
declare Thy glory, Lord,” or the still more classic ode of 
Joseph Addison, the Anglican, “ The spacious firmament 
on high.” Scarcely less familiar are the various versions of 
the ninetieth Psalm, such as “ O God the rock of ages,” by 
Bishop Bickersteth of the English Church, or Watts’ “O 
God our help in ages past.” 

With such common origins, and with the basic truths of 
religion for their inspiration, it is inevitable that the hymns 
of the church should express a unity of Christian sentiment 
far above the level of denominational variation. The Com¬ 
munion of Saints is never better illustrated than in the music 
of worship. Think of the old French hymn “ Jesus the very 
thought of Thee,” composed by the Roman Catholic Bernard 
of Clairvaux, and translated by Edward Caswell the Scotch 
Presbyterian; or of “Jerusalem the golden,” composed by 
another Catholic of the middle ages, Bernard of Cluny, and 
translated by John Mason Neale, an Anglican; or of Phill- 

-98- 





The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


ips Brooks’ hymn of the Nativity “ O little town of Beth¬ 
lehem,” the lovely poem of an Episcopalian; or of the oft- 
sung “ O Thou, whose own vast temple stands,” by William 
Cullen Bryant, a Unitarian; or of the glorious prayer u O 
love, that wilt not let me go,” by George Matheson, the 
Scotch Presbyterian; or “Blest be the tie that binds” by 
John Fawcett, the English Baptist; or that fine hymn 
“ Where cross the crowded ways of life,” by Frank Mason 
North, the Methodist; or Washington Gladden’s immortal 
poem, “ O Master, let me walk with Thee,” which is but one 
of a long list of hymns produced by Congregationalists; or 
the Quaker Whittier’s “Dear Lord and Father of man¬ 
kind”; or Cardinal Newman’s perennially beautiful peti¬ 
tion, “ Lead, Kindly Light.” 

These are mere suggestions of the immeasurable treasure 
of sacred song that has come from the lips and hearts of 
devout souls in all the churches of every confession and every 
ritual, based upon the book of Psalms. They reveal the 
common impulses of our holy faith, and prove that when 
men gather in the atmosphere of worship they are of one 
mind, and are unconscious of the sources from which come 
the hymns they sing. In this fact lies an argument, and 
also a prophecy. 

However satisfying the hymnology of the church may 
be, in the future as in the past hymn makers will draw from 
this source some of their most enduring themes. And the 
fitting finale of all anthologies of worship is that glorious 
hymn with which the Psalter closes, and which forms its 
final doxology and benediction, “ Let everything that hath 
breath praise the Lord, Hallelujah! ” 


— 99 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


A short book in the canon of the Old Testament which 
may well be associated with the Psalms is Lamentations. 
In the usual order of biblical books it follows Jeremiah, 
owing to the tradition that it was the work of that prophet. 
But in the Jewish canon it is placed among the Writings. 
The book consists of five poems lamenting the siege and 
fall of Jerusalem (presumably the catastrophe of 586 b.c.). 
Four of these dirges are in the acrostic form, chapters 1,2 and 
4 following the order of the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters; 
chapter 3 has 66 verses, three to each letter. Chapter 5 has 
22 verses, but is not in acrostic form. 

The tradition that Jeremiah was the author of these 
poems rests perhaps on the reference to that prophet’s lament 
for king Josiah, and the writing called “ the lamenta¬ 
tions.” 19 But it may well be that the Chronicler’s reference 
was to the words of Jeremiah in regard to the two kings, 
Josiah and Jehoahaz (Shallum) in Jeremiah 21:10-12. The 
opinion of modern biblical scholars favors a later date than 
the times of the prophet, if indeed it is not some later siege of 
Jerusalem that furnishes the background of the poems. The 
improbability that Jeremiah would have adopted a form of 
writing so artificial as the acrostic has also to be considered, 
and the further indications that the poems are the work of 
different authors, falling probably into three groups, 2 and 4, 
1 and 5, and 3. 

But whatever the conclusion reached regarding date 
and authorship, the tragic picture of Jerusalem’s fate is 
clear. As one reads these pathetic paragraphs he realizes that 
terrible things happened on the streets and in the homes of 

19 z Chron. 35 :i6. 


— IOO — 




The Prayers and Praises of Israel 


the holy city in that time of terror. 20 Yet all the way through 
there is the note of confession that the sin of Jerusalem has 
brought the visitation, and that only in penitence and amend¬ 
ment of life is there hope of better days. No wonder the 
plaintive words of these threnodies have been read by Jews 
for many generations at the “ wailing wall ” beside the old 
foundation stones of Solomon’s temple. “ How doth the 
city sit solitary that was full of people! She is become as a 
widow. . . . The ways of Zion do mourn, because none 
come to the appointed feast. All her gates are desolate, her 
priests do sigh. . . . Her gates are sunk into the earth. He 
hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and princes 
are among the nations where the law is not.” But like the 
singer of Psalm 42, the grieving poet will not despair. It is 
of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed; because 
his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; 
great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my 
soul; therefore will I hope in him.” 

20 Cf. Ps. 1377-9. 


— IOI — 




VIII 

BIBLICAL ROMANCES 


Like most men who have written with a purpose and 
endeavored to influence their fellow men to higher ideals, 
the writers of the Bible were wise enough to include stories, 
parables, traditions, fables and myths in the material they 
employed. They were aware that nothing is more attractive 
than a narrative, whether that narrative is fact or fiction. 
Sometimes the value of the instruction depends on the real¬ 
ity of the story, its fidelity to fact. Such would be the case 
in connection with the accounts of the life and work of the 
prophets, the apostles, and our Lord. We want to be as¬ 
sured of the reliability of the reports we receive regarding 
the great characters of which the Bible speaks. 

But there are many other kinds of narrative that are 
valuable quite apart from any basis of fact on which they 
rest. The literature of all peoples is enriched with tales like 
those of the King Arthur cycle, the Romance of Roland, the 
epic of the Cid, the Ramayana, the Mahabarata, the Nibel- 
ungenlied, and other legends of the past in which there is 
probably only a fragile thread of fact and a large fabric of 
imagination. Yet in so far as the stories have the value of 
illustrating noble qualities and inspiring later generations 
with generous and chivalrous sentiments, they prove their 
merit and accomplish their purpose. 


—102 — 


Biblical Romances 


Probably no body of writings has ever made ampler use 
of such materials than the Bible. The teachers of the Hebrew 
race were masters of the art of illustration. Their language 
was a pictorial and vivid instrument of thought. Their dis¬ 
course was replete with figures of speech. To read the pages 
of the Scriptures without appreciation of this quality is to 
miss half their beauty, and hold them to a literalness of 
meaning which they decline to carry. They are thoroughly 
oriental in their ways of speaking, and in the picturesque, 
colorful and dramatic way in which their ideas are expressed. 

For this reason many forms of speech found in the 
Bible would seem startling and unreal to the occidental 
mind had they not been worn down to common usage by 
centuries of familiar repetition. Think of some of the ex¬ 
pressions used even by Jesus, and imagine how they must 
have disturbed those who first heard them, men of the east 
though they were. “ Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,” “ you who 
strain at gnats and swallow camels,” “ destroy this temple, 
and in three days I will rebuild it,” “ ye shall see the Son 
of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in 
the clouds of glory”; these were among the astonishing 
sayings that puzzled and angered the listening scribes. 

Yet they were quite in the spirit of Old Testament im¬ 
agery. Such sayings as “ the morning stars sang together,” 
“ the trees of the field shall clap their hands,” “ they are 
more in number than the sand,” “with the blast of thy 
nostrils the waters were piled up,” or “ the mountains bowed 
themselves, and the little hills skipped like rams,” are char¬ 
acteristic of Hebrew modes of speech, and are not to be 


103 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


pressed into literalness. Such passages throw light upon 
many narratives in which the reader’s first impression is that 
a miracle is being described. Passages like “ the Lord cast 
down great stones upon them,” “ and the sun stood still in the 
midst of heaven,” “the Lord rained upon Sodom and 
Gomorrah brimstone and fire,” are dramatic ways of de¬ 
scribing natural events, or the retelling of ancient traditions. 

Mention has already been made of that background of 
Semitic mythology to which the Hebrews were heirs, and 
which explains many legendary and mythological references 
in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New.* But 
it should be kept in mind that unlike the Greek myths, 
which gradually lost their popular vogue with the growth 
of moral ideals, the Hebrew mythology grew in value as it 
became apparent that it was figurative rather than factual, 
and it was released from the burden of cosmical and scien¬ 
tific interpretation and left free to teach its ethical and 
spiritual lessons. 

There are many examples of folk tales, patriarchal leg¬ 
ends and nature myths in the Bible, used not as mere inter¬ 
esting recitals, but as possessing the value of illustration and 
suggestion. The early narratives of Genesis are not sig¬ 
nificant as records of world beginnings, but they are of 
great worth as patterns of Semitic mythology made to serve 
the nobler purpose of ethical and religious teaching. Their 
emphasis on monotheism, the tragedy of jealousy and hatred, 
the moral discipline of mankind, and the ideals of primitive 
Hebrew life served the ends of ethical admonition through 
the generations of Israel’s history. There was time enough 

* See page 13. 


— IO4 — 




Biblical Romances 


in the future to teach the facts of world science and history 
when those facts could be discovered by the regular processes 
of research and inquiry. The biblical narratives had a dif¬ 
ferent and more important object in view. 

The use of fable has several illustrations in the Old 
Testament. Probably the best remembered is the story told 
by Jotham the son of Gideon in his protest against the ag¬ 
gression of Abimelech his brother. In that story the trees 
decided that they would select a king. They offered the 
honor successively to the olive, the fig and the vine, only to 
meet with refusal on the ground that private interests inter¬ 
fered with the acceptance of public office. In disappointment 
and chagrin they then offered the place to the bramble, and 
the proffer met an instant acceptance. 1 Not the last time' 
in history that public office and responsibility have gone to 
the worthless and self-seeking because the more capable 
citizens were too busy with their own affairs to give time to 
public concerns. 

Another telling use of fable is found in the reply of 
Jehoash of Israel to Amaziah of Judah who challenged him 
to battle as a trial of strength between the two kingdoms. 
The cutting answer was the story of the thistle’s arrogant 
proposal to the cedar of Lebanon, “ Give thy daughter to my 
son to wife.” But a wild beast passed by, stepped on the 
thistle, and it disappeared. 2 In these cases and others the 
narratives lose none of their value by being pure fables. Even 
more pointed is their application. A wise and witty use of 
the fable is illustrated in the stories of iEsop, a Greek con¬ 
temporary of Jeremiah. 

1 Judg. 9:7-15; 2 z Kings 14:8, 90. 

— 105 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


Parables are much more frequently employed, both in 
the Old Testament and the New. They were imaginary 
episodes told for the purpose of urging a plea or illustrating 
a truth. The value of the story did not depend on any facts, 
nor was it lessened by being mere fiction. Joab’s device in 
securing a clever woman from Tekoah to tell the king an 
imaginary tale regarding her supposed son is a case in point. 3 
A similar plan was employed by the unknown author of 
Ecclesiastes in his use of the ancient king Solomon as the 
assumed author of his work. 4 Isaiah’s parable of the vine¬ 
yard 5 is an admirable example of this method. This par¬ 
able is suggestive of the one used by our Lord in his own 
story of the vineyard and its dishonest keepers. 6 

But of course the supreme example of the use of the 
parable is Jesus himself. As the word implies, the parables he 
used were stories that lay parallel to the truth he desired to 
enforce. There is no hint in any of the score of cases in 
which he employed them that they were accounts of actual 
happenings. They were such incidents as might occur, and 
would be easily understood by his hearers. But they show 
beyond question that Jesus regarded the use of fiction as 
both legitimate and worthful for purposes of instruction in 
morals and religion. Such stories as the Seed and the Soils, 
the Lost Son, the Good Samaritan, the Tares, and the Hidden 
Treasure are among the imperishable romances of grace 
that have been the joy and the admonition of the centuries. 
They are of universal significance. They can be set over 
into any language and any situation without loss of their 
primal values. 

3 i Sam. 14:1-10; 4 Eccl. 1:1,11; 5 Isa. 5:1-7; 6 Matt. 11:33-41. 

— 106 — 




Biblical Romances 


Among the many narratives found in the Old Testa¬ 
ment which appear to have the character of fiction is the 
book of Job, which even if founded on an older tradition is 
evidently a work of the imagination in the masterful form 
in which it has come to us. If the Song of Songs is to be re¬ 
garded as a drama rather than a series of marriage songs, 
it is probably a romance of the royal court in the days of 
Solomon. Some of the stories told in the first part of the 
book of Daniel would seem to belong to the same class of 
productions, narratives of purpose for the instruction and 
encouragement of the people of Israel in days of distress. 

There are however three books in the Hebrew Scriptures 
which have the appearance of works of fiction written with 
a definite bearing on current thought, and intended to be 
tracts for the times. They are Ruth, Jonah and Esther. The 
first two might easily be classed with the prophetic writings, 
for they are in the spirit of the great works of the prophetic 
group. The third might with equal propriety be placed in 
the list of priestly books. But because of the rather clear 
indications of their nature as works of the imagination 
rather than as narratives of fact, they demand a different 
grouping from the formal writings of the prophets and 
priests. 

The book of Ruth is a charming idyl set in the rude 
times of the judges and affording a striking contrast to the 
rough and ready narratives contained in the early book 
of that name. That it was written however in a compara¬ 
tively late age of the history is shown not only by its literary 
characteristics, but by its motive and lesson. The thought 
of the nation in the days after the exile took two divergent 


— 107 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


directions. Already in the Babylonian age those two types 
of sentiment had found expression. Ezekiel was a nation¬ 
alist of pronounced views. His entire regard was lavished 
upon the people of the covenant, their violated land, their 
neglected law and their ruined capital. It was their restora¬ 
tion to their ancient estate that gave impulse to all his pro¬ 
phetic labors. Living among exiled Hebrews in one of the 
villages of Babylonia, he spent the quarter of a century of his 
ministry in sustaining the faith of his fellow townsmen and 
preparing them for a return to their native Palestine. If his 
thought dwelt upon Israel’s future alone it is not a matter 
for surprise. He had enough to do to meet the difficult tests 
of his time and his circumstances. None the less the effect 
of a reading of Ezekiel’s messages must have been to intensify 
the national sentiment, and put an estimate upon Judah 
and her people far above that accorded to other races. This 
sentiment grew with the years, and found expression in 
a number of the later books, like Joel, the Chronicles, 
Ezra and several of the Psalms. It appears in a still more 
intense form in Esther, and finds voice in much of the 
Jewish literature of the first centuries before and after 
Christ. 

On the other hand there was a school of thinkers in 
Israel to which this narrow, insular and arrogant view was 
repugnant. The broader and more tolerant attitude had 
already found utterance in the writings of a contemporary 
of Ezekiel’s, the Second Isaiah. He had insisted that 
the task of the ideal Servant of Jahveh was not to be limited 
to the tribes of Jacob, but that he was to be a light to the na¬ 
tions, to bring the divine redemption to the ends of the 


—108 — 






Biblical Romances 


earth. 7 This glorious section of the book is shot through 
with the larger prophetic purpose. It can hardly be doubted, 
also, that the books of Ruth and Jonah, so different in struc¬ 
ture and method, are protests against the parochial attitude 
of the nationalists, and are efforts to awaken a more tolerant 
feeling toward their non-Hebrew neighbors. 

The little story of Ruth is told in simple and delightful 
style. A Hebrew family of four — father, mother and two 
sons — leaves the old home at Bethlehem in a time of famine, 
and finds a friendly asylum in Moab, beyond Jordan. There 
the sons marry maidens of the land. In time all three of the 
men die. The mother, without resources, decides to return 
to her people in Judah, and counsels her Moabite daughters- 
in-law to remain with their own kindred and remarry. Or- 
pah resolves to follow this advice, but Ruth will not forsake 
Naomi, and in one of the most beautiful passages in liter¬ 
ature declares her resolution. 8 On arrival in Bethlehem 
the young woman becomes the provider for the two, and ul¬ 
timately the wife of the rich householder, Boaz. It is mani¬ 
festly the intent of the writer to exhibit the hospitality of the 
people of Moab, where in a former time David had found 
refuge, 9 but as well to make clear the loyalty of this Moab¬ 
ite girl and the folly of prejudice against her people. More¬ 
over, at the end of the story, there is recorded a genealogy 
wherein David appears as a descendant of this daughter of 
a strange people. This is a sentiment very much in con¬ 
trast with the proverbial hatred of Israel for Moab and other 
of the neighboring peoples. 10 

The book of Jonah is a similar prophetic comment upon 

7 Isa. 49:6; 8 Ruth 1:16, 17; 9 1 Sam. 11:3-5; 10 Ps- Zeph. 1:9. 

— IO9 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


the tendency to bitterness of feeling in Hebrew hearts regard¬ 
ing all foreigners. It is not in the usual form of discourse, 
but is given the mold of a novel, in which a prophet, once 
mentioned and then dismissed from notice in an earlier 
record, 11 is made to serve the purpose of a later time. The 
Jonah of this book can hardly be called the hero of the nar¬ 
rative. Nor can he be described as the villain of the plot. 
His is a nature too little purposeful and convincing for either 
of these roles. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that 
he is the fool in the story, for his character appears as a foil 
for the real lessons of the book. The prophetic writer, far 
down in the period of intensifying nationalism, puts his ro¬ 
mance back in the days when the city of Nineveh was still 
standing, the capital of the hated kingdom of Assyria, the 
cruel overlord of the western lands. To this detested metrop¬ 
olis of the east Jonah is commanded to proceed with a mes¬ 
sage of immediate doom. Hating the heathen city with all 
his soul, and suspicious that his words might lead to its re¬ 
pentance and thus avert the destruction which he passion¬ 
ately desires, he takes refuge from his task in flight by sea in 
the opposite direction. The incidents of the storm, the ter¬ 
ror of the seamen, the reluctant consent to follow his counsel 
and cast him overboard, his deliverance by the great fish 
(perhaps intended as a symbol of Israel’s engulfment and 
restoration), are the dramatic embellishments of a story with 
a very definite purpose. 

Confronted with a fresh mandate to go to Nineveh and 
preach his message, the humbled prophet obeys, only to 
find, as he had feared, and to his complete disgust, that the 

11 2. Kings 14:15. 


— no — 




Biblical Romances 


entire city repents and puts on sackcloth, to the very beasts 
of the field. Discontented and reproachful that God has 
seen fit to change his purpose and spare the city, Jonah asks 
for death. The little incident of the withered gourd still 
further reveals the petulant and selfish nature of the man. 
And the book closes with the moving words, spoken by God, 
“ Should not I have pity on Nineveh that great city, wherein 
are more than six score thousand people that cannot discern 
between their right hand and their left, and also much cat¬ 
tle ? ” The book tells its own story, and needs no homily 
to make its message clear. In it the tender love of God, even 
for a heathen and cruel nation, is set in contrast with the 
prejudice and hatred of a narrow-minded Hebrew, prophet 
though he was. The miraculous features of the narrative 
present no difficulties to one who approaches it in the 
spirit of a student of history and tradition. It is one of the 
most beautiful and appealing recitals in the Old Testament. 

In complete contrast with this account is the book of 
Esther. Here the nationalist spirit speaks with full force. 
Like the other books of this group, its date is far down in the 
post-exilic time. It is the full flowering of the blood-red 
blossom of intolerance and race hatred. It should be insisted 
that no people had a larger measure of justification for 
bitterness of feeling against their persecutors than the 
Hebrews. Theirs was often a pathetic experience. But for 
once, in this book of Esther, their nationalism rose to its full 
expression, and they found a dramatic though wholly liter¬ 
ary revenge on their foes. The Persian background of the 
book is authentic but its events appear to be pure fiction. 
There are too many historical difficulties in the narrative to 


— hi — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


make it convincing. But as a story and a defiance it is com¬ 
plete and satisfying, and it must have been read over and 
over in days of persecution with feelings of grim exultation. 
The story is familiar and needs no repetition here. It is 
enough to point out the dramatic skill with which the suc¬ 
cessive scenes are constructed, and the book should be re¬ 
read in this connection. 

The Jewish maiden Esther is elevated to the Persian 
throne through the encouragement of her cousin, Mordecai. 
She then circumvents the plot of Haman, the prime min¬ 
ister, and brings him to his death and Mordecai to his of¬ 
fice. The law decreeing the massacre of the Jews in the 
realm cannot be changed, but they are permitted to defend 
themselves, and with fierce satisfaction the author writes 
that they slew seventy-five thousand of their “enemies,” 
three hundred of whom were cut down in Shushan the 
palace. This book, like the others, tells its own story and 
needs no interpretation. The chief consolation the reader 
has is in the reflection that it is probably a nationalistic ro¬ 
mance and not a narrative of fact. 

Several of the extra-canonical books, such as those found 
in the Apocrypha, are also religious novels, each with 
its own purpose and lesson. Among these Greek writings 
are Tobit, Judith, some fragments belonging to the Esther 
story, the additions to the book of Daniel, including the 
history of Susanna, the Song of the Three Holy Children, 
and Bel and the Dragon. It is probable also that many of 
the narratives in 2 Maccabees are imaginary recitals, though 
they were suggested by the situation described in the first 
of the Maccabean volumes. 


—112 — 




Biblical Romances 


After this hasty survey of the romantic literature of the 
Bible it hardly needs argument to make clear the value of 
fiction as well as fact in the teaching of morals and religion, 
no matter whether that fiction appears in the Scriptures or 
in such Christian documents of later days as Bunyan’s “ Pil¬ 
grim’s Progress.” 





IX 

THE LITERATURE OF APOCALYPSE 


In addition to the types of writing reviewed in the fore¬ 
going studies the Jewish people produced in the late years 
of the pre-Christian period an order of literature differing 
completely from any of the other varieties found in the 
Old Testament, an order peculiar to that people and that 
age. It is known as apocalypse, a word translated “ revela¬ 
tion ” in the title of the last book in the New Testament, 
which has the same general characteristics. It would seem 
that this kind of writing was confined to Jewish authors, 
and to the years between 200 b.c. and 200 a.d. 

It is not prophecy in any true sense, though the book of 
Daniel, the most conspicuous example in the Old Testa¬ 
ment, is often classed with the prophetic books by uncritical 
readers. It makes use of the device of prediction, which 
is one of the minor features of prophecy. But apocalypse 
is a form of writing to which resort was had in times of 
persecution and danger, when it was deemed wise to speak 
a message of encouragement to the community of believers, 
and a secret form of counsel was advisable. The language 
of apocalypse is cryptic, figurative, and therefore likely to 
be baffling to all but the circles of initiated believers. In it 
political and social changes are described in terms of signs, 
portents, animal forms and catastrophic events. Such books 
as Daniel and Revelation are filled with lurid, dramatic and 


114 — 


The Literature of Apocalypse 


symbolic language in description of world happenings 
then taking place or believed to be imminent. 

It may appear strange that this peculiar type of literature 
should be found only in Jewish groups and among the 
early Christians of Jewish birth. The explanation is prob¬ 
ably to be found in the fact that the later interpretation of 
the law had prohibited the exercise of artistic gifts and had 
to that extent stimulated the resort to picturesque writing. 
The second commandment had forbidden the making of 
images for worship. It would seem that in its earliest form 
this was the extent of the prohibition. Certainly in the 
construction of the tabernacle and the temple animal forms 
were employed for decoration, such as oxen, lions and 
cherubim . 1 These cherubim were apparently suggested by 
the Assyrian and Babylonian temple and palace guardians, 
usually composite creatures, such as lions with wings, set 
for the protection of royal residences and sanctuaries from 
evil spirits. This was evidently conceived to be their 
function in Hebrew mythology , 2 and they were also 
thought to be in emergencies the bearers of Jahveh through 
the skies . 3 Their images in the sanctuaries, both the 
tabernacle and the temple, were probably intended to sym¬ 
bolize the protection of the holy chest, the ark . 4 

It is thus apparent that in early times there was no 
prejudice against the use of animal or mythological forms 
for the adornment of buildings. But in later days the 
simple prohibition of the second commandment seems to 
have been elaborated to its present form, in which it strictly 

x i Kings 72.5, 19; 2 Gen. 3:14; 3 Ps. 18:10; 4 Exod. 15:19-11; 

37:7—9; 1 Kings 6:13-15; 8:7; 1 Chron. 3:10-13; 5:7, 8. 


—115— 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


forbids the making of any representation of any sort of 
creature . 5 It is possible of course that the natural inability 
of the Hebrews in the field of art found justification in the 
prohibition of decorative forms. This construction of the 
law of course made impossible any sort of plastic art. Paint¬ 
ing, sculpture and even embroidered figures were alike 
excluded. That left open only the employment of word pic¬ 
tures, and no doubt did much to stimulate that highly 
figurative style of writing which appears more and more in 
the later Hebrew literature. In apocalyptic it reaches its 
fullest expression. This restriction of all decorative effort to 
writing and the use of words and letters in adornment is also 
seen among the Mohammedans, who have raised the art of 
Kufic and Arabic inscriptional decoration to a high level. 

No doubt the vivid word pictures of the great prophets 
of the Assyrian period prepared the way for this more 
dramatic use of language. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah 
were orators with impressive gifts of speech. Jeremiah was 
hardly less effective in his use of word images. But with 
Ezekiel one finds himself in a veritable picture gallery of 
colorful scenes, in which the progress from fable, drama, 
allegory, vision and parable to actual apocalypse is gradual 
but inevitable. The reader has but to scan the vivid chap¬ 
ters of the prophet of Tel-abib to perceive how graphic is 
his message and how his book became the quarry from 
which later writers of the apocalyptic mood took much 
of their material. The influence of Ezekiel is apparent 
in Daniel, and particularly in the apocalypse of the New 
Testament, the book of Revelation. 

6 Exod. io:8; Deut. 5:8. 

— Il6 — 





The Literature of Apocalypse 


The progress from the older forms of prophecy to this 
feebler type of religious instruction is evident to the 
least sensitive reader. Apocalypse is the successor of 
prophecy, attempting to employ some of the more ornate 
features of the older discipline when the spirit has de¬ 
parted. Prediction, which played a mere subordinate part 
in the work of the great preachers of the past, now becomes 
the accepted device of these later and less inspired workers. 
The appeal to the supernatural is constant. Angels throng 
the stage of this less forceful form of apostrophe. Coming 
judgments and deliverances are set forth with constant em¬ 
ployment of the marvelous and spectacular. Such transi¬ 
tional writings as Isaiah 24-27, Zechariah 9-14 and Joel 
are illustrations of this decline. The intent of the writers 
is urgent and patriotic, but the genius of the former day 
has departed. The apocalypse is the attempt of a scribe 
to speak with the voice of prophetic authority. The pur¬ 
pose is to aid the faithful to hold fast their loyalty to the 
covenant in days of darkness and distress. That the result 
was in a measure satisfactory is shown by the persistence 
of national courage through times of deep tragedy, and the 
additional fact that the writings of the early apocalyptists 
set the type for a considerable body of literature in the 
following years. 

Not only were there several examples of this literature 
which found their way into the canon of the Old and New 
Testaments, but a much larger body of similar character 
made a place for itself in extra-biblical collections. Such 
works as those that took form under the name of Enoch, 
and such documents as the Apocalypse of Baruch, Fourth 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


Esdras, and the Sibylline Oracles secured a notable place in 
the regard of Jews and Jewish Christians in the years fol¬ 
lowing the life of our Lord. The motive of all these books 
is the same. No hope is entertained of relief from present 
troubles through the preaching of the truth, the method 
which prophets and apostles alike felt to be the power of 
God to effect reforms. The only hope lies in the early, 
indeed the immediate, intervention of God in manifestations 
of divine power for the suppression of evil and the rewarding 
of good. There is the same pessimism regarding any other 
than catastrophic deliverance that has always informed the 
theologies of despair. The designs of the Eternal, as they are 
portrayed by these writers, are outlined in historical terms, 
in which the past periods of human events are reviewed in 
the form of alleged predictions, put into the mouth of some 
ancient seer, like Enoch, Baruch, Ezra or Daniel. And for 
the rest, apocalyptic symbols, numbers, colors and phrases 
are laid under constant tribute. 

The outstanding example of this form of literature in 
the Old Testament is the book of Daniel. It shares with 
the book of Revelation the unique features of the school 
from which it comes. It is one of the most interesting, one 
might say intriguing, books in the collection. That it is 
not easy to understand without some knowledge of the 
form of writing to which it belongs, and the times from 
which it emerges, goes with the saying. It does not conform 
to any of the familiar categories represented in the other 
divisions of the Bible. But properly interpreted, its message 
and its value become at once apparent. It must have had 
great influence with the Jewish people not only in the crisis 


—118 — 





The Literature of Apocalypse 


in which it appeared but in other times of peril Like other 
books that have had a particular message and value for a 
special emergency and have proved helpful in later and 
similar precarious days, the book of Daniel has proved a 
fitting word in more than one exigency since the one that 
called it forth. In such an appreciation of its perpetual 
value, our Lord cited one of its warnings as applicable in 
the fresh Roman crisis that was approaching the holy city. 6 

The events that form the historical background of the 
book of Daniel are recorded in the first chapter of the first 
book of Maccabees. In the second quarter of the second 
century b.c. Syria, including Palestine, was ruled by An- 
tiochus IV, Epiphanes, a successor of Seleucus, one of the 
four generals among whom the empire of Alexander the 
Great was divided. Being a devoted admirer of the Greek 
and Roman paganism, he was eager to suppress all other 
faiths in his dominions. Of these variant cults the most 
conspicuous and persistent in that region was the Hebrew 
religion. Failing in the use of other means, Antiochus re¬ 
sorted to persecution, and treated Jerusalem and its people 
with great cruelty, demolishing portions of the city wall and 
of the temple, and defiling the sanctuary so that the worship 
had to be abandoned for a time. This campaign of re¬ 
pression led to the Maccabean uprising, perhaps the most 
romantic event in the national history. 7 At about the same 
period the book of Daniel seems to have appeared, whose 
purpose was to inspire the loyal with courage to per¬ 
severe in their constancy until the dark days of persecution 
should cease and the tyrant should fall. This it was con- 

8 Matt. 14:15; cf. Dan. 92.7; 1 1 Macc. 1-9. 


— II 9 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


fidently expected would take place within an interval not 
too long to be endured. This measure of time, as in other 
apocalyptic works, was usually described as three years and 
a half. 8 

The book of Daniel is divided into two sections of six 
chapters each. The first section recounts the experiences of 
a certain prophet Daniel of the distant past, one of the He¬ 
brews at the court of Nebuchadnezzar (more properly 
Nebuchadrezzar) king of Babylon. Of a worthy by the 
name of Daniel traditions had come down the years. 9 Of 
him and his three Hebrew companions a series of impressive 
experiences is recorded that would have the value of stimu¬ 
lating the faith and heroism of the people suffering under the 
oppression of the king, and subjected to numberless tempta¬ 
tions to abandon their ancient worship and adopt the inviting 
paganism of the times. 

In the first chapter it is related that Daniel and his 
friends, selected to become members of the school of the 
palace where promising youths were taught the arts of 
divination, declined to abandon their Hebrew rules of diet, 
and became by the blessing of God the foremost of the king’s 
wise men. In the second, Daniel proves to be the only 
one of the wise men who can make known to the king 
a recent dream and its interpretation. In this narrative 
the historical device of the author is disclosed. By re¬ 
lating the events of the years intervening since the fall of 
Jerusalem, and putting them into the mouth of Daniel in 
the form of prediction, the writer is able to describe con¬ 
temporary happenings as if they were long ago foreseen, 

8 Dan. 73.5; IZ7; cf. Rev. iz:6; 13:5; 8 Ezek. 14:14, zo. 


— 120 — 




The Literature of Apocalypse 


and therefore predetermined in the counsels of God. Four 
empires follow one another. The first was the Babylonian, 
of which Nebuchadrezzar was the head. The second was 
the Median, the third the Persian, and the fourth the 
Macedonian world empire of Alexander, now divided and 
crumbling. Its death blow was to be dealt by a new king¬ 
dom about to appear, the reign of the God of heaven, which 
was to take possession of the world and to endure forever. 
This was to be the rule of the holy people, the Jews, now 
persecuted but soon to be set in the throne of power. 

The third chapter makes no mention of Daniel, but 
tells of the heroic conduct of his three friends, who were 
subjected to the cruel penalty for refusal to comply with 
the king’s order to worship his image, and were miraculously 
preserved from the fire. Such narratives were a direct chal¬ 
lenge to the confessors of Israel’s faith to maintain their 
courage steadfast, and to go to any death sooner than prove 
apostates. The fourth chapter tells of another of the king’s 
dreams, which Daniel interpreted as foreshadowing the 
divine discipline upon Nebuchadrezzar because of his pride 
and boastfulness. For seven years he was to be the victim 
of insanity and live like a beast. Upon his restoration he 
acknowledged the truth and wisdom of the Most High. 
A narrative of this kind, though unmentioned in any au¬ 
thentic record of the king’s life, could not fail to strengthen 
the confidence of the people in the God of their fathers. 

The fifth chapter tells of the feast made by Belshazzar, a 
supposed son and successor of Nebuchadrezzar, in which the 
sacred vessels from the temple at Jerusalem were used in 
the revelry. A mystic hand writes on the wall the doom 


—121 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


of the king and his kingdom, and the aged Daniel is brought 
in at the queen-mother’s suggestion, and makes known its 
sinister meaning. Thus ended, according to our author, 
the Babylonian rule, and the Medes, under Darius, took the 
kingdom. In this as in several other particulars the writer’s 
order of events differs from that of the historians. It is not, 
however, the province of the biblical student to correct the 
statements of the book, but to understand the author’s point 
of view and the use he made of the facts as he had learned 
them. The last of the six chapters of the narrative records 
the familiar story of Daniel’s fidelity to his God and his de¬ 
liverance from the lions. It is evident that the traditions 
embodied in these chapters must have been of the utmost 
value in inspiring the people of the law to fealty to their 
institutions and resistance to all inducements to their 
betrayal. 

With the seventh chapter the section of the book which 
deals with the visions of Daniel opens. This same ancient 
seer is made the recipient of a series of revelations, all of 
which deal with the present crisis, the persecutor An- 
tiochus, his early overthrow, and the establishment of the 
kingdom of God, i.e., the rule of the Jewish people. In 
the seventh chapter the same ground is traversed as in chap¬ 
ter two. The four empires that are regarded as the foes 
of the holy people are now represented by four animal 
forms. The lion is Babylon, the bear is Media, the leopard 
is Persia, and the fourth terrible beast is the Macedonian or 
Greek rule, among whose successive kings appears An- 
tiochus, the “ little horn,” arrogant, blasphemous and cruel. 
Then the divine judgment is set up, the beast destroyed, 


—122 — 




The Literature of Apocalypse 


and the kingdom bestowed upon the “ son of man,” who 
comes with the clouds of heaven, and is at once identified 
with the “ saints of the Most High,” i.e., the Jewish nation, 
whom all dominions shall serve and obey. In this ac¬ 
count there is set forth in vivid form the high hopes for a 
national triumph cherished by the apocalyptists of that day. 
The term “ son of man ” is frequently met in the later 
Jewish literature of apocalypse. Sometimes it refers to a 
human being, any man, 10 but more frequently to a divine 
being with messianic functions. 11 In the New Testament 
it is used by our Lord in referring to himself 12 and 
probably at times with direct allusion to Daniel 7:i3* 13 
The passage in Daniel, however, does not refer to Jesus, 
as is shown by its context, and the identification there of 
the “ son of man ” with the “ saints of the Most High,” the 
Jewish people. Moreover the purview of the author of 
Daniel does not extend beyond the Maccabean age. All 
reference therefore to the Roman Empire and the ministry 
of Jesus must be excluded. 

In chapter eight the same ground is measured again, 
save that the first kingdom, Babylon, is omitted from the 
survey. The two kingdoms of Media and Persia are repre¬ 
sented by the ram with the two unequal horns, and the 
Greek dominion by the goat. Here nothing is left to the 
imagination, for the author specifies exactly what he means, 
naming the figures in his vision. The point of the re¬ 
cital is, as before, the “little horn,” Antiochus, and his 
sacrilegious practices against the holy house, the temple. 

10 Ezek. i:i, 3; 3:1, 3, etc.; 11 Esd. 13:3; Enoch 46:1-4; 61:5, 19, 14; 
69:17, etc.; 12 Matt. 9:6; Luke 6:5, etc.; 13 Cf. Mark 14:61; Luke 11:17. 


— 123 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Overhearing the conversation of two angels Daniel learns 
that the time to elapse before the sanctuary shall be cleansed 
and the worship resumed will be two thousand three 
hundred evening-mornings, or eleven hundred days, some¬ 
thing less than the usual apocalyptic measure of three years 
and a half. In the ninth chapter the author undertakes to 
explain why it is that the seventy years of the captivity 
spoken of by Jeremiah as the period of the dispersion, 14 and 
now long since past, did not bring the troubles of Judah 
to an end. The solution is found in the fact that seventy 
wee\s of years, not merely seventy years, was the measure 
of the time which is now about to end with the destruction 
of the desolator. 

The tenth and eleventh chapters contain a long and 
detailed description of the wars between Syria on the north 
and Egypt on the south, which brings the story down again 
to the well-known figure of Antiochus, whose activities are 
set forth with a fulness not hitherto attempted. 15 Evidently 
at that point the narrator came to the moment when he 
wrote his message, for from that on to the end of the chap¬ 
ter the story is quite general, and differs from the familiar 
facts of Antiochus’ last days. But of one thing the writer 
was sure — the oppressor was soon to perish, and the day 
of glory for the holy people was to dawn. This is the 
element of actual prediction contained in the book. It does 
not lose, however, by the employment of pseudo-prediction 
in its earlier portions. That device was as legitimate and 
valuable for the purposes intended as the use of fable and 
fiction in many other portions of the Bible. 

14 Jer. 15:11; 19:10; w Dan. 11:11-40. 

— 124 — 





The Literature of Apocalypse 


The last chapter is a fitting close to the volume. The 
seer Daniel is told that a long time intervenes between his 
age and the final days of which he has just been told. He 
is to shut up the record and seal it until the end. At that 
time it will be made clear. One thing alone could be known 
about the duration of the final age. From the time of 
the abandonment of the daily burnt offering and the setting 
up of the “ abomination,” i.e., the image of Jupiter on the 
altar of burnt offering at the temple, there would be an 
interval of twelve hundred and ninety days, a little more 
than three years and a half. Happy would be those who 
survived to any date beyond that time, such as the thirteen 
hundred and thirty-fifth day. The hopes of the book of 
Daniel, like those of most of the apocalyptic works, were 
not realized in the manner anticipated. But they kept the 
faith of the people alive through days of peril and distress. 
And in that fact they proved their worth. 

The apocalyptic features of the New Testament and 
the great Apocalypse of the early Christian period, are treated 
in a later chapter.* 

* See page 117. 


— 125 — 



X 

THE MAKING AND REMAKING OF 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 


Any thought of a special collection of Hebrew books 
must have arisen rather late in the history of the nation of 
Israel. At that time the total body of writings from which 
choice could be made was considerable. This aggregate 
consisted of many sorts of documents. There were state 
records, legal institutes, prophetic narratives, biographical 
sketches, collections of hymns and national poems, anthol¬ 
ogies of epigrams and other wisdom materials, fragments 
of prophetic sermons, and masses of more popular and 
perishable literature such as an active and successful people 
produces day by day. 

As early as 650 b.c. the Judean and Ephraimite prophetic 
narratives embodying the Book of the Covenant were com¬ 
bined in a body of writings generally known today as the 
“ JE ” document, and so well articulated that its analysis 
is not always clear. But the first indication of a deliberate 
effort to place a particular writing upon the level of approved 
sanctity and reverence is observed in connection with the 
discovery of the book of laws in the temple in the reign of 
Josiah in 621 b.c. The code thus brought to light was made 
the basis of a drastic national reformation, and was adopted 
by the people in a sort of solemn league and covenant as the 
law of the land. The older legislation of the Book of 


—126 — 


The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


the Covenant had been in use for some generations as the 
authoritative constitution of the state. But from this time 
on the new code, which in a measure included and now 
superseded the familiar legal corpus, held the place of power. 

The law thus canonized by royal edict and popular 
approval is now recognized to have been the Deuteronomic 
legislation. It came into Israel’s life in a dramatic manner 
and at an opportune moment. It possessed the sanction of 
the venerated name of Moses; it claimed the authority of 
God; and furthermore it exhibited those inherent qualities 
of high moral tone, lofty religious purpose and searching 
appeal which have made it a most valuable portion of the 
Hebrew Scriptures. 

A second stage in the selection of a body of writings 
as the norm of the nation’s life was reached in the days of 
the two reformers, Nehemiah and Ezra. The former prob¬ 
ably arrived in Jerusalem as the voluntary governor of the 
unhappy province in 445 b.c. The latter came as the leader 
of a little company of priests and Levites a few years later, 
probably in 397 b.c. The item of chief interest in con¬ 
nection with Ezra’s commission and his journey was that 
he brought from the richer and more highly organized 
centers of Hebrew life in the east a copy of a document so 
important that it is frequently referred to as “ the law of 
God.” 1 

This new code of law, revising and superseding the 
Deuteronomic legislation, appears to have grown out of 
the assiduous labors of priests and scribes in the schools of the 
east whither the dispersion had carried their fathers. Since 

1 Ezra 7:14, ii, 16. 

— 127— 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


the days of Josiah the nation had declined and fallen. Its 
hopes of political power, tried out in the melancholy efforts 
to revive Jerusalem, had all but failed. Its future success 
was believed to lie in the effort to observe with rigorous 
minuteness the divine will as embodied in rules of conduct. 
Ezekiel had outlined such a state and the laws by which 
it was to be governed. A priest, the author of the central 
chapters of the book of Leviticus, had produced the “ Law 
of Holiness.” 2 On the basis of these materials the Priest 
Code took form. In an assembly like the one held in Josiah’s 
day this roll was read, adopted as “ a sure covenant,” and 
solemnly sealed, with a curse upon the indifferent. 3 In 
this impressive manner a part of the extant Hebrew litera¬ 
ture became holy Scripture. That code, including much of 
the later portion of Exodus, and the books of Leviticus 
and Numbers, soon after reached its present estate. Some¬ 
what later the books of Moses, as they were called, came to 
their final form, including the prophetic laws and narratives 
of the Judean and Ephraimite sources, the Deuteronomic 
material, the “ holiness ” institutes, and the Priest Code. 
This body of writings, fixed into the matrix of the priestly 
narrative, became the recognized “Book of the Law of 
Moses.” 

From that day forth this group of writings was recog¬ 
nized as the Torah, the Law of Moses, the will of God. 
Nothing ever compared with it in sanctity. Gradually it 
rose in scribal and popular veneration from one level to 
another until it was confidently affirmed that Moses wrote 
it entire. Later still tradition insisted that it was penned in 

2 Lev. 17-16; 3 Neh. 8:1-8; 9:3; 10:18, 19. 

— 128 — 



The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


heaven and delivered to the immortal lawgiver through 
ranks of angels. 4 It is possible to say with assurance that 
this first section of the Old Testament to be recognized as 
Scripture became canonical soon after the year 400 b.c. 

At that date the second group of our Old Testament 
books, the Prophets, had not attained this rank. We know 
that by two tokens. The first is the fact that the Samaritans, 
who at some period subsequent to the reformation of Ezra 
separated themselves forever from all relations with the 
Jewish community, adopted the five books of Moses in 
almost the precise form in which we have them, as their 
canon of sacred Scripture, but never accepted the other parts 
of the Old Testament. That Torah of Moses they keep 
to this day in a highly revered and fairly ancient scroll* 
The other fact is the exalted regard in which the books 
of Chronicles, written about 300 b.c., hold the Law of Moses, 
while they employ the prophetic books with the utmost free¬ 
dom, and alter them without hesitation. 

By the year 200 b.c. the eight books of the Prophets 
— Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel 
and the Roll of the Twelve (the twelve Minor Prophets, 
from Hosea to Malachi) were accorded canonical recog¬ 
nition. The author of the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of 
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) lived about that time. He refers to 
the Law and the Prophets as acknowledged Scripture in his 


* The Samaritans, regarding themselves as the true people of Jahveh, and 
the Jews as an apostate race, continued to occupy the territory of the northern 
kingdom, with admixtures of population from other provinces of the Assyrian 
Empire. Those who survive to the present in Nablus, ancient Shechem, arc a 
little group of less than a hundred people. (Cf. Montgomery, The Samaritans .) 

4 Acts 7:53; Heb. z:i. 


— 129 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


day. This provides satisfactory assurance of the inclusion 
of this second group in the canon at that date. 

There still remained the miscellaneous books, more or 
less concerned with religion, but far less revered than those 
already mentioned. By the time the prophetic list was 
organized no doubt a large portion of the abundant literature 
of previous generations had yielded to the vicissitudes of 
time and disappeared. The nation had passed through such 
tragedies as might well dissipate all but the most highly 
prized and carefully preserved of its literary treasures. Cer¬ 
tain it is that a large part of the total body of Israel’s writings 
had perished. There were however at hand the great 
works of poetry like the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, each 
the result of patient gleaning and revision; the Five Rolls 
comprising Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes 
and Esther; and two other works, the pseudonymous 
apocalypse of Daniel, and the priestly record of national 
events, Chronicles, with its continuations in Ezra and 
Nehemiah. 

Some of these books appeared quite late in the pre- 
Christian period. In Jesus’ reference to the sweep of events 
from the death of Abel to that of Zachariah 5 he seems to 
imply the very late date of Chronicles, in which the second 
of these events is recorded. 6 Daniel was probably written 
about 164 b.c., and the book of Psalms may have received 
its final editing as late as 150 b.c. It is not unlikely that 
the Maccabean struggle created a desire to preserve from 
destruction as much as possible of the national literature. 
There are evidences that some of the books included in the 


6 Luke 11:51; 6 z Chron. z4:za-zz. 
— I30 — 




The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


canon were not admitted without debate as to their right 
to admission, for Esther, Canticles and Ecclesiastes were held 
doubtful by some. The Greek translation of the Old Testa¬ 
ment, made for use in Egypt, was begun about two hundred 
and fifty years before Christ, but not completed until long 
afterward, and some portions of the material were sup¬ 
plied from other translations. Therefore this version, called 
the Septuagint or LXX, is not a sure indication of the 
time at which the canon of the Old Testament was 
completed. 

In the year 132 b.c. the grandson of Jesus the Son of 
Sirach made a translation of his ancestor’s Hebrew work 
into Greek. In a prologue to this edition mention is made 
three times over of “ the Law, the Prophets, and the other 
books.” There seems to be a reference here to three groups 
of writings, though it is not certain that the third, “ the 
other books,” was a definitely fixed list. It is known that as 
late as the first century b.c. the progressive and conservative 
schools among the Jews debated the question as to whether 
such books as Ecclesiastes and Canticles should be admitted 
to the canon. 

In the New Testament mention is made of the three 
sections of the Old Testament, the Law, the Prophets and 
the Psalms (the Writings, or Miscellanies, whose first book 
was the Psalms) as recognized and distinct. 7 Philo the 
well-known Jewish authority who lived in the first cen¬ 
tury a.d. quoted frequently from the Hebrew Scripture as a 
work familiar and of fixed content, and the same is true of 
Josephus who wrote early in the second Christian century. 

7 Luke 14:44. 


— 131 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


By the time the Jewish Council of Jamnia met in 113 a.d. the 
list of the Hebrew writings had been decided beyond debate. 
It would seem then that the canon of the Law was settled 
as early as the fourth century b.c., the Prophets by 200 b.c., 
and at least the major portion of the Writings as early 
as 132 b.c. 

Probably the final criterion by which a book was judged 
as entitled to a place in the approved collection was the 
fact that it was written in the Hebrew language. At least 
our present Old Testament includes everything that sur¬ 
vived from that literature. If the Wisdom of Jesus ben 
Sirach seems to be an exception, since fragments of the 
original Hebrew of the book have appeared in recent times, 
it must be recalled that it only became current in its later 
Greek form. Such a criterion would perhaps explain why 
books like Ecclesiastes and Canticles were included, and 
the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sirach) 
omitted. By the time the final verdicts were rendered the 
Hebrew language had ceased to be used, and was therefore 
classic and sacred. 

It is apparent that through the centuries in which the 
materials of the Old Testament were taking form a large 
measure of freedom was felt in their treatment. They 
were fragments of a much larger body of writing, and 
the processes of revision and selection were going on con¬ 
tinuously. Some writings were treasured because of their 
appeal to the religious spirit. Others perished. But none 
was regarded at the time of its production as of divine origin 
or special sacredness. They were handled with great free¬ 
dom, and such judgment as sensitive minds brought to bear 


— 132 — 




The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


upon their value and finality was exercised with entire 
liberty and confidence. 

In this freedom to correct and modify the work of an 
earlier time lay the ground of such numerous revisions and 
alterations as the Old Testament reveals. There were 
changes of the text made not so much in the interest of 
accuracy of record as in the effort to secure better teaching 
or practice. The teachers of one generation felt free to 
amend and correct what they regarded as the imperfect 
or unethical ideals of an earlier age. Sometimes these re¬ 
lated to standards of human conduct, and sometimes to 
interpretations of the divine character. The writers of the 
Hebrew religious literature were as unconscious that they 
were producing a sacred book as were the authors of the 
New Testament documents. They were concerned only 
to give emphatic utterance to their own highest conceptions 
of truth, or to correct what seemed to them the errors of 
their predecessors. They were unaware of any such qualities 
of exactness and finality as later generations were to attribute 
to their work. They held no views regarding the unalter¬ 
able nature of Scripture, because they had no conception 
of any formal and precise values in the writings that they 
were producing. All such views belong to a later age. If 
the interpreters of the Bible had always dealt with these 
documents with the freedom and insight which animated 
the original writers of the two Testaments, the modern 
generation would need to waste less time in the correction 
of erroneous opinions concerning the nature and value of 
the Scriptures. 

The most casual reading of the Hebrew records dis- 


i33~ 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


closes a large amount of editorial work. This is most 
noticeable in those portions of the material where there are 
parallel narratives, as in the Samuel-Kings accounts com¬ 
pared with those of Chronicles. Here the selection and 
correction of the recital in the later document are apparent. 
Many of these changes, and others that might be noted, 
are not the mere editorial revisions and suggestions which 
scribal workers upon the text might have produced, but 
rather those integral alterations which reveal the activities 
of men who counted themselves no mere revisers of the 
text, but first-hand students of its content and critics of its 
utterances. A few illustrations will afford some more ade¬ 
quate idea of a process which is discoverable in many parts 
of the Old Testament. Naturally the best field for observa¬ 
tion is the poetical literature, where meter and rhythm 
afford additional aid in the study. But this is by no means 
the only class of writing where the process of revision may 
be noted. 

In the song of Hannah 8 it is apparent that some work 
of a corrective sort has brought the poem to its present 
form. It is clear that it bears no marks of appropriateness 
to the incidents of the surrounding record. It would be 
difficult to conceive of its composition in its present form 
by a Hebrew woman even of Hannah’s character and ex¬ 
perience. Nor does it seem wholly satisfactory to suppose, 
with some of the commentators, that a later and more gen¬ 
eral hymn of national thanksgiving has been appropriated 
by the author of the narrative and put into the mouth of 
this mother in Israel, because of its single reference to the 

8 i Samuel z. 







The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


barren woman having borne seven. On the other hand, it 
seems probable that the poem may have been at first an 
entirely personal statement of experience, whether Hannah’s 
or another’s. But these personal touches have been definitely 
and scrupulously cut away in order to give the poem greater 
value as a national utterance. And probably also those 
strictly national references which occur here and there in 
the song were added in the same corrective and revisional 
spirit by men who felt that the original poem was too 
limited in expression to meet the needs of the occasion. 
There is, to be sure, a wearing away of individual character¬ 
istics that may be seen in the history of many poems adapted 
for hymn use. But the process of deliberate and careful 
alteration is just as evident in others, to be found in all 
our hymn collections. And there is no reason to doubt 
that this more satisfactory explanation may be employed 
in more than one of the biblical poems, of which this is an 
example. 

Many of the Psalms reveal the work of revisers. The 
list of these alterations, which are more deliberate and 
thoroughgoing than the common editorial corrections, 
would be a very long one if followed out. But note, for 
example, the changes wrought in the structure of such 
alphabetic Psalms as 9, 10, 25, 34 and the like. It is cus¬ 
tomary to attribute the broken structure of these Psalms 
to the carelessness of transcribers who have failed to in¬ 
corporate the sections whose absence is revealed by the acros¬ 
tic arrangement. But this is not a wholly satisfactory theory. 
In the Psalms mentioned there are not only omissions but 
additions as well, as is proved by the metrical structure of 


-135 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the poems. And the excision of the lost parts would appear 
to be as definitely the work of a reviser and critic as the 
additional lines.* 

Psalm 18 is an excellent example of the tendency to 
amplify and strengthen a poem as well as to offer some 
element of a corrective sort to its general course of state¬ 
ment, by the addition of warning and appeal. The poem 
is of course an ode which in its simplest form was perhaps 
a war song of David’s age. Its use in i Samuel 22 lends 
sanction to this view. But certain additions to the original 
structure tend to bring it up to date, and protect it from 
interpretation in accordance with older views of the char¬ 
acter of God. In verses 21-24 there is a direct injunction 
to fidelity to the Deuteronomic law. In verses 25-28 the 
reader is enjoined to the observance of those principles 
of Hebrew “ wisdom ” which had become a part of the 
nation’s ethical law. And other additions of a national 
character, such as are found in verses 45, 46 and 50, 
give additional assurance of late revisional and corrective 
activities. 

Psalm 22 is a description of the fate of some unhappy 
individual or of suffering Israel in days of persecution. But 
verses 24,25 and 27 present liturgical additions quite beyond 
the ranges of experience pictured in the psalm, while verses 
28-32 are a messianic comment which changes entirely the 
current of thought and gives a larger significance to the 
experience. Psalm 32 was at first probably a simple peni¬ 
tential hymn. But it is sprinkled with ethical and liturgical 

* The metrical structure and the acrostic form are made evident in such a 
work as The Old Testament — An American Translation , by J. M. P. Smith and 
others. 


— 136— 




The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


additions intended to make it more useful as an instrument 
of religious instruction. 

Another type of textual change is illustrated by the 
well-known passage in Zechariah 6:9-15. Into the com¬ 
munity of Jerusalem, now slowly reviving, a company of 
pilgrims from Babylonia had recently come, bringing offer¬ 
ings of silver and gold. The text reads as follows: “Take 
of them silver and gold and make crowns, and set them 
upon the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high 
priest, and speak unto him saying, Thus speaketh the Lord 
of Hosts saying, Behold the man whose name is the Branch; 
and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the 
temple of the Lord.” It is apparent that the confusion of 
this text is not the result of carelessness or chance but is 
deliberate, the consequence of a desire to conceal as far as 
possible the unhappy outcome of the effort to establish 
Judah as an independent principality under the sovereignty 
of Zerubbabel. It would seem that by the patriotic efforts 
of the prophets and the people a crown was prepared for 
Zerubbabel, out of these gifts from the east. But the sus¬ 
picion of the Persian officials of the colony was aroused by 
this procedure, and in some manner not described Zerub¬ 
babel was removed from his place, for he disappears com¬ 
pletely from the story. The account which frankly recited 
the facts was then changed to make it appear that crowns 
had been prepared, both for Zerubbabel and Joshua, making 
them significant merely as the symbols of the reverence of 
the community, but not of royal power. Finally, under the 
impulse of a desire to suppress as far as possible all reference 
to the tragic outcome of the matter, the name of Zerubbabel 


— 137- 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


was dropped entirely from the narrative, leaving the text 
in its present confused condition. These are only a few 
of the examples which might be cited, which indicate de¬ 
liberate revisional and critical activity upon the text of the 
Old Testament by those who felt themselves as competent 
to write of the matters in hand as the men by whom the 
original message was prepared. 

Another class of revisional changes wrought by critical 
workers in Old Testament literature includes corrections 
of previous historical statement, religious teaching or in¬ 
stitutional enactments. As is to be expected, the most con¬ 
spicuous examples are furnished by the prophetic and priestly 
schools, although instances are not wanting in the work of 
other teachers in Israel. The narratives of the rise of the 
Hebrew state we owe in their earliest form to the group of 
writers belonging to the southern kingdom and known in 
general as the Jahvists, the date of whose literary output is 
perhaps about 850 b.c. It was the purpose of these writers, 
apparently, to glorify the Davidic monarchy. They drew 
freely upon the sources at hand, and their account of the 
facts is the most authentic we possess, owing to their near¬ 
ness to the events of which they wrote. They did not hesi¬ 
tate to incorporate their own later conceptions of truth in 
their record of traditional national experiences. It was 
natural for them to read the customs and institutions of 
their own time back into the most primitive ages, as such 
stories as that of Cain and Abel suggest. But as they were 
inspired by no particular apologetic purpose, the historical 
facts which they included in their narrative approached 
nearer to the actual events than any other body of Old Testa- 

138 — 





The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


ment narratives. These Jahvist teachers represent in general 
the type of thought embodied in the messages of Elijah and 
Elisha. Jahveh was for them essentially a tribal God, who 
insisted upon tribal loyalty, and enforced his will by rewards 
and punishments not unmixed with caprice. The ethical 
standards of the time were not above the cruel and vin¬ 
dictive level of a primitive time. But the narratives of these 
workers are vivid, picturesque and not without great sig¬ 
nificance as Israel’s earliest embodiment of ethical sanctions 
and religious ideas. 

A century and more later another group of teachers, 
aroused no doubt by the preaching of such prophets as 
Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, and companions with them 
in the task of religious and moral reform, issued a new 
body of narratives of the past in which a definite effort 
was made to correct and bring up to date the national 
conception of its God and its history. A wholly new in¬ 
terpretation of religion and of national responsibility was 
embodied in these Elohistic narratives, whose date was prob¬ 
ably about 750 b.c. They exhibit a revisal of judgment, a 
correction of facts and a criticism of past standards which 
cannot escape the attention of the observant student. It is 
probable that their representation of the events of national 
character is less reliable than that of their predecessors, both 
because they were at a further remove from them, and 
because of the inevitable bias of their reforming purpose. 
They were the children of their age and the ability to repress 
personal and partisan bias has only in part been achieved in 
scientific circles even at the present day. 

These men wrought under a sense of duty. The 


— 139 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


contest between Assyria and Egypt had brought up a wholly 
new body of problems and widened the horizon of the 
national life. The old doctrine of tribalism had to be given 
up for a broader conception of God’s relation to his people 
and the world. Higher moral standards were erected. 
Obedience became less a matter of clan interest than of 
religious obligation. Moral excellence was emphasized. 
Justice and chastity were enjoined. A new theology as well 
as a new morality was enforced by these companions of 
the first writing prophets. And just as the work of Amos 
and the other moral leaders of the age was directed against 
the earlier and partial religion of the Jahvists, so these 
writers of the Elohistic school transformed the story of 
the past into a vindication of the new faith. 

One of the most familiar and outstanding instances 
of this is the story of Abraham and Hagar as presented 
in the two sources. The Jahvist account indicates no 
scruple on the part of the patriarch in his expulsion of 
the slave woman, about to become a mother. The picture 
of this servant wandering in the desert alone and friendless 
awaiting the peril of motherhood is softened by no sensitive¬ 
ness in the writer’s feelings. 9 On the other hand the 
Elohistic account deliberately changes the story to a more 
humane attitude on the part of Abraham, who after the 
child has grown into boyhood dismisses the woman, but 
not without grave concern and careful provision for her 
welfare. 10 The change of sentiment manifested in the 
second recital of the facts is illustrative of a higher con¬ 
ception of human relations and responsibilities. 

9 Gen. i6:6 f 7; 18 Gen. 11:9-14. 

—140 — 





The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


A similar difference is to be noticed in the spirit of the 
earlier institutes of Israel embodied in the two sets of nar¬ 
ratives respectively. This is perhaps best seen in the contents 
of the two forms of the ten commandments, quite different 
in substance, but each claiming to be the original code of 
ten words inscribed upon the tablets of stone. The Jahvist 
list found in Exodus 34 contains purely ceremonial enact¬ 
ments, while that of the Elohists in Exodus 20 is concerned 
with religious and ethical considerations, just such matters as 
those with which Amos and his prophetic companions would 
be likely to deal. The spirit of free criticism and correction 
is evident. 

Again the Jahvists exhibit a wholly different conception 
of God from that presented by their successors. More par¬ 
ticularly is this apparent in the human, anthropomorphic 
character attributed to deity in the older source, where he 
works at the task of creation, walks in the garden for the cool 
of the day, shuts Noah into the Ark, and smells the reek of 
sacrifice. In the Elohist narratives he reveals himself only to 
choice and elect men, the moral leaders of the people, and 
if his appearance is suggested it is in some such sublime fash¬ 
ion as in the vision of Jacob at Bethel. In these and many 
other instances the freedom to revise, criticize and transform 
the material of the past or to displace it with new recitals of the 
facts is apparent. There is no superstitious reverence for 
the writings of the religious teachers of an earlier age. The 
fear of modifying the words of Scripture was still far in 
the future. 

Not alone in the writings of the prophetic narrators of 
Israel’s national experience does this corrective and critical 






The Bible Through the Centuries 


process appear. It is even more striking in the personal ut¬ 
terances of the prophets themselves. Nor is this criticism of 
theirs confined to popular errors of the past and present. It 
is not infrequently explicitly directed at the prophetic ideals 
and teachings of earlier times. For example it is clear that 
David’s cruelty in war, as well as the devastating savagery 
of his predecessors, was distinctly approved by the prophets 
of the earlier age. One need hardly to be reminded of the 
instructions given by Samuel regarding the extermination of 
the Amalekites, or the commendatory spirit in which 
David’s treatment of his enemies and the captives taken in 
his wars was described by the prophetic narrators of the age. 
Contrast with this Amos’ severe arraignment of neighbor¬ 
ing nations for precisely the same conduct, the whole tenor 
of his discourse implying the rise of Israel to moral levels 
where such vindictivenes and barbarism could no longer be 
even conceived. 11 

Another instance of similar character is Hosea’s mordant 
condemnation of the bloody reforms of Jehu, the destroyer 
of the house of Ahab. Yet the prophetic approval of that 
transaction was explicit. The command conveyed to Jehu 
from Elisha is reported in these words, “ Thou shalt smite 
the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood 
of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants 
of Jahveh at the hand of Jezebel; for all the house of Ahab 
shall perish.” 12 And in the prophetic records of Jehu’s 
reign his explicit praise by the prophetic group of his time is 
recorded in these words, “ And Jahveh said unto Jehu, Be¬ 
cause thou hast done well in executing that which is right 

11 Amos i, z; 12 z Kings 9:7. 


— 142 — 





The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab accord¬ 
ing to all that was in my heart, thy sons of the fourth genera¬ 
tion shall sit on the throne of Israel.” 13 Is it not past all 
doubt that Hosea had in mind not only the events of that 
bloody time but as well the prophetic commendation of 
Jehu’s course, when he wrote a century later in the chronicle 
of his own prophetic experience, “Yet a little while and I 
will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and 
will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease ” ? 14 
Here the critical and corrective spirit of the prophet speaks 
in unmistakable terms. 

Another example of similar character may be cited. 
The section of the book of Isaiah included in chapters 40 
to 55 is to a large degree a message of encouragement 
to the scattered clans of Judah. The work of Cyrus upon 
the eastern frontier of Babylonia affords the writer a dis¬ 
tinct intimation of the providential preparation for the re¬ 
lease of the dispersed Hebrews and their homeward journey. 
Jerusalem must be rebuilt under the protecting care of the 
God, in comparison with whom the deities of Babylon are 
mere creatures of the workshop. The tone of this series of 
oracles is distinctly national, concerned only with the reor¬ 
ganization of Hebrew institutions. But the striking phe¬ 
nomenon of this section of the book is the insertion of four 
impressive poems, the “ Servant passages,” 15 whose relation 
to the body of the work has been variously judged. Some 
have thought them the basis of the entire work, others an in¬ 
tegral part of it, and still others later insertions. One reason 
which makes the last of these three views more satisfactory 

18 1 Kings 10:30; 14 Hosea 1:4; 16 Isa. 41, 49, 50, 51-53. 

— 143 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


than the others is the distinct critical and correctional tone of 
these four poems when compared with their context. Their 
message is a definite rejection of the purely national and 
selfish attitude of earlier prophets. They point the people 
to a far loftier and broader mission, as a world force for 
the interpretation of Jahveh’s religion. With a definiteness 
which appears full of rebuke to the narrow spirit of certain 
contemporaries, they call the people to an unselfish com¬ 
mitment to the high task of missionary effort. And this fact 
goes far toward vindicating their later insertion as an at¬ 
tempt to revise and transform the spirit of this prophetic 
message. 

Another field in which the same critical processes are 
plainly perceptible is that of the priestly writings. Perhaps 
even more apparent is the revisional tendency in this body of 
writings than in that of the prophets. The earliest embodi¬ 
ment of Hebrew legislation is to be found in the Book of the 
Covenant with its supplement from the Jahvistic source.* 
This was probably the constitution of the state during the 
whole of the earlier monarchy. But in the dark days of 
Manasseh, following certain tentative efforts already made 
by reformers like Hezekiah, the priests and prophets of the 
loyal group prepared a new statement of the laws of the 
nation, intended to be a corrective of the vicious practices 
which had become habitual in the provincial sanctuaries. A 
comparison of the Deuteronomic code with the earlier law 
puts beyond question the revisional, critical, and corrective 
character of its laws. It was no mere casual improvement 
of conditions which these reformers desired. It was the 

* See page 67. 

— I44 — 




The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


definite abolition of religious customs which had enjoyed 
the sanction of the older legislation. The changes wrought 
by these persecuted workers during the days of darkness ap¬ 
peared in the drastic changes wrought by the Josian reforma¬ 
tion. The contrasts between the older and the newer law 
are almost too familiar to need recital. Two or three alone 
may be mentioned. 

The earlier legislation had permitted worship at any 
spot where the sanction of tradition and custom had cre¬ 
ated a shrine. And this practice prevailed freely up to the 
times of Josiah and was sanctioned by the authority of 
the most distinguished moral leaders of Israel. The new 
law of Deuteronomy explicitly forbade all this provincial 
worship, and centered the religious cultus at the Jeru¬ 
salem sanctuary, under penalties which were certain to in¬ 
sure its observance. The critical attitude of these reformers 
toward the practice of the past is beyond all misinterpreta¬ 
tion. 

Likewise was there a definite change in the estate of the 
priestly class. Formerly every man was permitted to per¬ 
form priestly functions in his own family. The tribe of 
Levi, honored for the sake of Moses, its most distinguished 
member, was held to be available for priestly services, but 
not set apart by any direct enactment. Nor was Levitical 
ministry ever deemed obligatory, though the customs of such 
kings as David and Solomon had promoted the priestly im¬ 
portance of the tribe. But with Deuteronomy all this was 
changed. The priesthood was definitely limited to the Le- 
vites, all of whom were placed by this legislation upon the 
same high footing of equality without gradations of rank. 


— 145 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


The terms “ priest ” and “Levite” were now exactly 
equivalent. 

Similarly the income of the priestly class was placed 
upon a wholly different foundation by the reformers. Hith¬ 
erto no provision had been made for their support. If they 
were employed at all, their compensation was left to the 
goodwill of the worshipers or was gradually fixed by custom. 
But the Deuteronomic law placed this matter upon a definite 
basis by specifying the precise gift that should be accorded 
the priest upon the performance of his duties. 

The changes wrought by the Deuteronomic law were 
very numerous and their consideration might be indefinitely 
extended. But the ethical advance recorded in this legisla¬ 
tion is as notable as its ritualistic reforms. The whole spirit 
of the work is distinctly an improvement over the concep¬ 
tions of the earlier times. Nor is it possible to escape the 
impression constantly conveyed by this body of writings that 
it was the effort of its makers to displace the cruder and less 
ethical and effective ideals of earlier times by the new in¬ 
stitutes which they were presenting. 

During the early years of the exile another body of law 
took form under the hand of the prophet Ezekiel. His ef¬ 
forts were devoted to the revival of the national spirit under 
the inspiration of a picture of the rebuilt Jerusalem. Of this 
city the temple was to be the most important structure, and 
around it was to be organized the sacred community with 
its various orders of priests and rulers. The code of Ezekiel 
was never actually organized into the life of the nation, but 
its impress upon legislation may be traced with definiteness. 
It was a distinct criticism of the Deuteronomic scheme in 


—146 — 




The Making and Remaking of the Old Testament 


various particulars, notably that of a common level for the 
priests. In Ezekiel’s code these were limited to the family 
of Zadok. In other respects as well the ideals of Deuter¬ 
onomy and the Josian reformation were revised and corrected. 

The code of Holiness contained in Leviticus 17-26 pre¬ 
sents materials of different and somewhat conflicting charac¬ 
ter, but on the whole is directed to the effort to create a com¬ 
munity of distinctly worthier life than in the old royal days, 
the emphasis now being placed upon ritualistic and ceremo¬ 
nial holiness. With this in later times was joined the Priest 
Code brought to Judah in the age of Nehemiah and Ezra. 
Its insistence was placed upon a holy people, meeting at 
specific times in a sacred congregation about a holy chest, 
the ark, where certain relics of the past were preserved. Only 
at such a place could worship be effectual. Nor were the 
creators of this code of law satisfied to allow the people to 
remain possessed of the idea that the sanctuary had ever 
been the simple and unpretentious structure which the 
national records described. On the contrary they insisted 
that the tabernacle in the wilderness had been a sanctuary of 
such elaborate and costly character as to differ but little 
from the permanent structure erected by Solomon on the 
sacred site of Zion. 

In these efforts of succeeding generations of priestly 
workers to evaluate, criticise, displace, and reconstruct the 
priestly and liturgical institutions of the nation, there is 
displayed a spirit of freedom and confidence which sub¬ 
mits itself in no wise to traditional obligations, but is con¬ 
cerned alone with the duty owed to the sacred community 
and to God. The work of these reformers was devoted, not 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


to the recovery of obscure facts and neglected institutions, 
but to the creation of new ideals of conduct and forms of 
worship believed to be necessary for the times in which they 
lived. They found in this task a sufficient guaranty of the 
divine approval, and they asked no man’s consent to the 
labors which they so freely bestowed out of pure love for 
the religion which they were both restoring and creating. 

Further illustrations of this principle of criticism and 
revision in other parts of the Old Testament are abundant. 
The corrective element in the speeches of Elihu in the book 
of Job, the reconstruction of Israel’s history undertaken by 
the Chronicler and intended to displace the prophetic and 
non-liturgical version of the national history, and the work 
of the apocalyptists, notably in the books of Daniel and 
Enoch, to supplant the doctrine of the effectiveness of the 
prophetic word with their own theology of divine interven¬ 
tion, are examples of the same revising spirit. Thus it is 
clear that the Old Testament exhibits numerous and strik¬ 
ing examples of the efforts of holy men to revise the opinions 
of the past; to correct earlier standards of conduct; and to 
present definite and decisive criticisms of the history and in¬ 
stitutions of a former time under the compulsion of a duty 
as impressive as that which animated the original authors 
of the record. 


— 148—- 




XI 

ISRAEL AND THE MONUMENTS 


In few things is our modern age more remarkable than 
in the aid it has rendered the student of the Bible in the un¬ 
derstanding and interpretation of its records. From widely 
diverse areas light has poured in upon the Scriptures. The 
biblical text both of the Old and the New Testaments has 
been examined and corrected with the most minute and ex¬ 
haustive comparison of the various versions. Materials for 
this labor of emendation have appeared from many sources 
and are still appearing. The better knowledge of languages 
into which the Bible was translated in early days has yielded 
valuable results in the reconstruction of the original text. 
The historical and literary criticism of the biblical docu¬ 
ments has solved many problems that baffled earlier schol¬ 
ars. The contemporary history of the classic age of Hebrew 
life, and of the Christian church in the Graeco-Roman world 
has been investigated with scientific diligence and with 
significant results. Comparative religion has taken its place 
among the contributing disciplines. And students of 
world culture, as it has been disclosed in the areas of the 
fertile crescent, the home of the Semitic races, have been en¬ 
abled to offer to biblical specialists numerous suggestions of 
value for the illumination of the sacred narratives. 

But in many ways the most important service has been 
rendered by archaeological research. This has been pros- 


— 149 — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


ecuted in all the lands that formed in ancient days the en¬ 
vironment of the biblical peoples. Egypt, Babylonia, As¬ 
syria, Asia Minor, the Greek cities of the New Testament, 
and above all Palestine itself have been searched with greater 
or less thoroughness for materials that might assist in the 
reconstruction of the civilizations out of which the Bible 
emerged. The results have been valuable and rewarding. 
Only a beginning has as yet been made in the undertaking, 
but this beginning has afforded glimpses of materials hith¬ 
erto inaccessible and destined to play a notable part in 
future studies. 

The scholar has at hand today a growing mass of con¬ 
firmatory and corrective facts yielded up by the mounds and 
ruins of the oriental world. Cities long buried have given 
up their secrets. Rulers thought to be half mythical have 
come forth into the light of verifiable knowledge, and in¬ 
cidents recorded in the Bible are now attested by the his¬ 
torical records of the Tigris and the Nile. The results 
achieved by archaeology are the more impressive when it is 
recalled that until recent years the early stories of Egypt and 
the Mesopotamian peninsula were locked in the mysterious 
grasp of unknown languages. Nothing more romantic has 
been accomplished by scientific research than the opening of 
the secret doors that admitted the modern age to a knowl¬ 
edge of the literatures of these two great civilizations. And 
other disclosures equally thrilling may well be expected. 

Until recent years the Bible was supposed to stand com¬ 
paratively alone on the far frontier of the world’s literature. 
It was thought to be one of the oldest of human documents. 
The books of Genesis and Job held the regard of the earlier 


— 150 — 





Israel and the Monuments 


generations as the most venerable of writings. Happily this 
tradition has been corrected. The Scriptures represent a 
fairly recent movement in the literary history of mankind. 
Far older than these records are the landmarks of the world’s 
literary origins. The patriarchs are men of yesterday, and the 
oldest portions of the biblical text find their places far this 
side of the first classics of China, the pyramid texts of Egypt, 
or the laws of King Hammurabi of Babylon. 

Moreover the stage on which the Bible once stood soli¬ 
tary and unsupported has gradually filled with characters 
from the surrounding lands. One knew nothing two gen¬ 
erations ago of such places as Ur, Haran, Pithom, Gezer, 
Megiddo and Gath save from the testimony of the Hebrew 
Scriptures. Were there actually such rulers as Rameses, 
Ahab, Jehu, Menahem, Sargon and Sennacherib, or were the 
stories told of them in biblical books to be regarded with the 
reserve befitting the readers of romance? Such doubts are 
no longer entertained, for the monuments have given their 
witness, and the figures that looked so questionable have 
moved up into the light of authentic history. 

At first the records of the Old Testament make upon 
the reader the impression of a rich and cultured civilization, 
in comparison with which the peoples of neighboring lands 
were on a lower level of knowledge and artistic achievement. 
The reigns of Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Ahab and Hezekiah 
are described with a patriotic enthusiasm which tends to 
leave the impression that the near-by nations, though more 
powerful, were less amply furnished than Israel with the in¬ 
sight, the wisdom and graces of a true culture. They were 
the lesser breeds without the law. But later knowledge 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


gained from the study of these adjoining races leaves no 
room for such opinions. History and archaeology have 
made them impossible. In comparison with the civilization 
of Egypt and Babylonia, that of Palestine was disappoint¬ 
ingly meager. Among the Hebrews the progress of most 
of the arts, agriculture, the use of tools and weapons, archi¬ 
tecture, decoration, medical science, business procedure and 
legal theory was very slow. In Europe contemporary pe¬ 
riods were far more advanced, and in the Orient Egypt was 
always far ahead. All the more surprising therefore is the 
moral and religious output of this little country. No known 
culture has originated in the Palestinian region. But from 
it there emerged a spirit and a message that were of far 
greater moment to the world. 

The discoveries which have made possible these and 
other conclusions regarding the land of the Lord and the re¬ 
lated lands have been made in recent years. This is both 
fortunate and regrettable. It is to be deplored that since 
Palestine has been known, loved and visited by innumerable 
multitudes through all the years since the first era of pil¬ 
grimage, no plan should have been devised earlier for the 
preservation of the mass of priceless archaeological material 
which has been collected, sold, stolen, destroyed, or otherwise 
wasted by ignorant curiosity hunters all through the cen¬ 
turies. The only consolation is to be found in the fact that 
the souvenir seeker is a creature of fairly modern arrival, 
and has been able to work havoc to a lesser degree than his 
earlier appearance would have permitted. The commercial 
value of antiquities, either genuine or spurious, is so much a 
matter of common report among the natives in the lands 


— 152 — 





Israel and the Monuments 


around the eastern end of the Mediterranean that the mere 
survey of a presumed historic site is likely to set the people 
of the district to digging on their own account for the sup¬ 
posed treasure. 

An instance of this tendency and danger came to at¬ 
tention at the time of a visit by a party of students and teach¬ 
ers from the University of Chicago to the site of the ancient 
city of Gezer while Dr. Macalister was excavating there for 
the Palestine Fund. Almost as soon as the examination of 
the mound was begun by the group, the doctor explained 
that a most unfortunate incident had occurred on the pre¬ 
vious day. In digging they had turned up a wedge of gold, 
perhaps something like the one taken by Achan from the 
spoil of Jericho. Instantly the entire neighboring village 
from which their workers were recruited was excited by the 
report, and the people forgetful of all restraint began to dig 
here, there and everywhere in the hope of further finds. 
It is always hard at the best to convince the native that the 
archaeologist is searching for anything less immediately 
valuable than treasure, and an episode of the sort mentioned 
may do incalculable damage to the work of the explorer. 
About the best that can be done is to impress the natives with 
the idea that the best market they can find for a real dis¬ 
covery is the investigator himself or the nearest museum. 
And in Egypt at least this is a fairly well established tradition. 

On the other hand it is fortunate that only a limited 
amount of excavation was undertaken in the period before 
the technique of scientific survey and digging had been de¬ 
veloped. Much of the older trench work carried on by 
pioneers in the field was partial, expensive and destructive 


— 153 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


of later effort. The present methods take account of every 
cubic yard of soil and make careful record of all it contains, 
even the most minute objects. The knowledge of the various 
forms of pottery, whose fragments were once thrown aside 
as worthless, has now been brought to such an exact 
state that experts are able to determine with approximate 
certainty the date of any such remains. Professor Petrie has 
made it clear that potsherds have a higher average value 
even than inscriptions. Their precise location therefore, the 
level at which they are found, is a matter of immense im¬ 
portance to the archaeologist and the historian. From this 
point of view it is fortunate that only a limited amount of 
excavating has as yet been undertaken. This may seem a 
curious statement in the light of the long list of explorers 
and excavators who have worked in biblical lands. Never¬ 
theless, in comparison with the enormous and highly sig¬ 
nificant work which lies ahead one may say that the enter¬ 
prise has hardly more than begun. 

The most fruitful of the regions in which one expects 
to find material for biblical study is Egypt, for here the sand, 
both menacing and protective, has combined with the hot 
climate to preserve enormous quantities of pictorial and in- 
scriptional data which in regions colder and less dry would 
have perished. Egypt is hardly more than the valley of the 
Nile, a little strip of green and fertile land that winds down 
from the Abyssinian highlands through the trenches of the 
White and Blue Niles to widen into the Delta a thousand 
miles to the north. In this valley lived the people, a mixture 
of Semite, Berber and Negroid stocks, jvho covered innu¬ 
merable monoliths and slabs of red sandstone and granite 


— 154 — 




Israel and the Monuments 


with the curious picture writing that teased the imagination 
of travelers through the centuries till our own days. Their 
temples, palaces, pyramids and monuments were scattered 
along this opulent stream which was both sustainer and 
deity to them. Their story reaches back into the fourth 
millennium before Christ. At some period prior to 4000 b.c. 
the various nomes into which the country was divided were 
consolidated into two kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt, 
the former of which extended from the Delta to the first 
cataract and had for its symbol the papyrus plant. After 
a pre-dynastic period lasting for several hundred years, the 
first dynasty was founded by Mena about 3400 b.c. and left 
the records of its turquoise mining operations in admirably 
wrought inscriptions at the Wady Maghara in the so-called 
peninsula of Sinai. Thus early the picture writing, the 
priestly script or hieroglyphic, had taken form. 

During the third and fourth dynasties the building of 
pyramids for royal tombs began. Of these the earliest was 
that of Zoser, about 3000 b.c., known as the Step Pyramid, at 
Sakkara, a few miles from Cairo. Khufu or Cheops, the 
founder of the fourth dynasty, improved upon the idea and 
constructed the first real pyramid, the largest of them all. 
The stone for this immense structure was quarried from the 
Mokattam hills across the Nile, more than twelve miles 
away. Khafre, the second king from Khufu, built for him¬ 
self a pyramid tomb almost as huge as the Great Pyramid, 
and also carved from the native rock near these two tombs 
a massive sphinx, the face of which bore his own likeness. 
Between its extended paws he set a small mortuary temple 
for perpetual priestly services in his honor. 


— 155 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


In the twelfth dynasty, a period of expansion to the 
south, Amenemhet III, about 2000 b . c ., conducted further 
mining operations in Sinai and built there a temple in 
honor of Hathor, mistress of the mafkat or turquois, at a 
place now called Sarbut el-Khaden With the thirteenth 
dynasty, about 1788 b . c ., there ensued a time of foreign in¬ 
vasion and national decline. This is the period of the Hyk- 
sos, or Shepherd Kings, so called, who apparently came in 
from Asia, and may have been Semites or possibly Hittites. 

With the seventeenth dynasty, about 1600 b.c., there was 
a revival of the national spirit, and the foreigners were ex¬ 
pelled. There followed the era of Thothmes III, the great¬ 
est of the kings of Egypt, who extended the boundaries of 
the realm far into Asia. One of his notable triumphs was 
the Battle of Megiddo, in which he crushed a league of 
North Syria and Palestine under the leadership of the king 
of Kadesh. Between 1478 and 1450 he made a dozen or more 
expeditions into Palestine, Syria and Phoenicia. His in¬ 
scription on the walls of the temple of Amon at Karnak 
names many places which are mentioned as Hebrew towns 
in the Old Testament. Thebes the capital became one of 
the renowned cities of the world. Its palaces and temples 
were situated on the east bank of the Nile, and the necrop¬ 
olis was across the river in the valley of the royal tombs. 

With the arrival of the eighteenth dynasty about 1450 
the power and splendor of Egypt reached their culmination. 
Amenhotep III contracted marriages with Mitanni and 
Babylonia. But the next reign told a different story. Amen¬ 
hotep IV, the so-called heretic king, abandoned the capital 
at Thebes, set up a new center of the empire at a city which 

-156- 




Israel and the Monuments 


he called Akhetaten, the “ Horizon of Aten,” the solar disc, 
and changed his own name to Akhenaten, or Ikhnaten, 
“ Aten is satisfied.” The site of the city which he thus con¬ 
structed as a rival to the former capital and sanctuary of 
Amon at Thebes is now known as Tel el-Amarna, and is 
situated about 200 miles south of Cairo on the east bank of 
the Nile. There in 1887 there were discovered nearly four 
hundred clay tablets in the Babylonian character which dis¬ 
closed when read a hitherto unknown chapter in the history 
of Egypt and its dependencies in the fifteenth century b.c. 
These letters were from officials of the empire in Palestine 
and Phoenicia, and were written to Amenhotep III and 
Amenhotep IV. Seven of them were from Ebed-hepa, king 
of Jerusalem about 1360 b.c., more than 350 years before 
David took it for his capital. 

The light which these letters throw upon the character 
of Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten, as he preferred to call 
himself, has raised interesting questions for students of his¬ 
tory to ponder. Was he the eager monotheist, the first of 
his kind in history, the man who antedated Amos and Josiah 
by centuries and cared more for his religious ideals than 
he did for sovereignty? Or was he a fatuous and imprac¬ 
ticable dreamer, an antiquarian, a dabbler in theology, who 
had resented the arrogance of the priests of Amon at Thebes 
and determined to ruin them and establish his authority by 
removing the capital to a new site? Either view may be 
held, as one reads the story, and each has its scholarly de¬ 
fenders. But the Amarna age was one of the most sig¬ 
nificant in Egyptian annals, and the contribution which its 
clay-tablet library has made to history and literature, tragic 


— 157 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


as were the experiences of those records, is second to none 
in the story of research.* 

The warnings contained in the official letters to the 
court at the new seat of power were ineffective. Akhenaten 
either had no interest in the campaigns which could have 
kept his empire intact, or he was, as has been charged, a 
convinced pacifist. At all events the subject states soon 
broke away from their allegiance, and the downfall of the 
new regime was inevitable. No son was available to carry 
on the government, and after one son-in-law had failed, the 
youthful Tut-ankh-amen came to the throne. It was not 
long till he made peace with the hierarchy at Thebes, and 
the capital was transferred back to its former location. The 
new city, laid out with such painstaking interest, was aban¬ 
doned to the encroaching sands, and like Amber among the 
hills of Jaypur, or Fatihpur-sikri, the darling enterprise of 
Akbar the Great, has been for centuries the home of the 
jackal and the owl. 

But that tomb of the boy king, with no drop of royal 
blood in his veins, has become the wonder of our time. Its 
treasures, now gathered under the roof of the Cairo mu¬ 
seum, are the astonishment of the world. Nothing like 
them has ever before been unearthed. If an insignificant 
and almost nameless kinglet like Tut-ankh-amen could be 
the object of an interment as magnificent as this, what must 
have been the mortuary honors of the real kings of Egypt, 
like Thothmes III and Rameses II ? 

The story of the nineteenth dynasty is familiar. Its im¬ 
portant rulers were Seti I and Rameses II. The latter was 

* Cf. James Baikie, The Amarna Age. 

-158- 




Israel and the Monuments 


the builder and braggart of his race. He erected numberless 
structures in his own honor, decorated them with his stat¬ 
ues, and covered them with honorific inscriptions. His long 
reign gave ample opportunity for military exploits, and these 
were the chief theme of his self-laudation. His scribes and 
poets spared no efforts to immortalize him, and these pane¬ 
gyrics, together with the preservation of his mummy in the 
Cairo treasure house, have contributed, perhaps unduly, to 
his posthumous fame. 

His son, Merneptah, is supposed to have been the 
Pharaoh of the exodus, as Rameses was of the oppression. 
The account in Exodus 14 and 15 of the passage of the sea 
would appear to imply that he perished with his army. But 
his body was found with the others in the tombs of the kings, 
and is at the museum. In the fifth year of his reign he set up 
a tablet, purloined from the temple of Amenhotep III, on 
which he inscribed a hymn of victory over conquests he had 
recently made in Palestine. The mention of Israel on this 
stele is the only reference to the Hebrews thus far found 
on any Egyptian monument. 

A notable monumental source for biblical students is 
found in the inscription of Sheshonk I of the twenty-second 
dynasty on the wall of the Temple of Amon at Karnak. 
This king was the Shishak of 1 Kings 14:25, and the story 
of his invasion of Palestine, of which one episode was the 
sack of Jerusalem in the reign of Rehoboam, brings vividly 
to mind that unhappy plundering of the city so recently en¬ 
riched by Solomon. 

Two other discoveries of archaeological material in 
Egypt have been of great value to students of the biblical 


— 159 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


records. One is certain papyrus records from the island of 
Elephantine, near Assouan, showing that there was a He¬ 
brew colony located there in the twenty-sixth dynasty, in the 
fifth century b.c., about contemporary with Nehemiah. The 
colonists there had a temple to Jahveh, and perhaps repre¬ 
sented one of those migrational movements in search of 
safety which took many of that nation to other lands than 
Palestine. The other find which has proved of great interest 
was that of certain scraps of papyrus in the rubbish heaps of 
Oxyrhynchus, the ancient Greek name of the modern town 
of Behnesa, 123 miles south of Cairo, and some nine miles 
west of the Nile. Among these have been found the so- 
called “ Sayings of Jesus,” which since 1897 have been often 
cited as authentic words of the Lord. 

The story of the opening of this immense hoard of 
Egyptian archaeological material to popular knowledge is 
too familiar to require detailed retelling. The discovery of 
the Rosetta Stone, at the Canopic mouth of the Nile, was the 
work of one of the engineers with Napoleon’s expedition in 
1799. It is a large block of black granite with three in¬ 
scriptions, one in hieroglyphic, one in demotic, the shorter 
writing, and one in Greek. This trilingual inscription, a 
decree of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, 205-181 b.c., finally fur¬ 
nished the key which after many efforts opened to Francois 
Champollion the vast treasures of Egyptian lore. The 
list of scientists who have since wrought either at the task 
of excavation or of decipherment is long and impressive. 
Among them have been Lepsius, Mariette, Maspero, De Mor¬ 
gan, Naville, Petrie, Davies, Breasted, Carter and Reisner. 

At the best the work of the archaeologist in Egypt is 


—160 — 




Israel and the Monuments 


not easy. There are always the five plagues, which might 
easily run to ten, as in Moses’ day. These are the heat, sand, 
insects, bad water, and the unreliable character of the native 
help. But there is also the frequent exhibition of hostility 
on the part of the Egyptian government and the Egyptian 
department of antiquities, which is under French direction. 
It was the character of some of the conditions imposed by 
these officially placed guardians of Egyptian antiquities that 
caused the recent withdrawal of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, 
Jr.’s, generous offer of ten millions of dollars for the recon¬ 
struction of the Cairo museum and the erection of a scien¬ 
tifically organized school of archaeology and research in 
connection with it. This unfortunate episode is a great 
loss to science. 

In spite of all difficulties encountered, however, a very 
large amount of work is proceeding. The Harvard-Boston 
expedition, under the direction of Dr. George A. Reisner, 
perhaps the most eminent of all American field Egyptol¬ 
ogists, is carrying on work at Gizeh, near the pyramids. One 
royal tomb, supposed to be that of a queen in one of the 
earliest dynasties, has been discovered and excavated. The 
Philadelphia Museum has a force at work not far from 
the site of old Memphis. The Metropolitan Museum of New 
York has a permanent headquarters opposite Karnak and 
keeps something of a staff in residence. The University of 
Michigan has had an expedition at work on the Graeco- 
Roman ruins in the Fayyum. This force was under the di¬ 
rection of Professor Kelsey as long as he remained there. 
The Egyptian Exploration Fund is operating certain con¬ 
cessions at Abydos. And the Oriental Institute of the Uni- 


—161 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


versity of Chicago, of which Professor James Henry Breasted 
is director, is carrying forward its epigraphic work 
on the Temple of Rameses III at Thebes, usually known as 
the temple of Medinet Habu. This work is carried on from 
Chicago House near by, a residence and workshop, with a 
library of sizable proportions, the gift of Mr. Julius 
Rosenwald. 

The story which has thus been told of Egypt in such 
summary and superficial manner could be duplicated re¬ 
garding Assyria and Babylonia. There the conditions have 
been even more trying, both as regards climatic and govern¬ 
mental difficulties. Drenching rains alternating with scorch¬ 
ing heat make work most exacting and are a continual 
menace to the perishable materials buried in the soil. To 
this was added the constant friction with officials under 
the Turkish regime, which in many cases put a premature 
end to promising excavations. This impediment has now 
happily been removed by the establishment of the British 
mandate, and the future appears full of promise. 

As in the case of Egypt, the records of Mesopotamia 
were locked in an unknown tongue. Travelers had seen 
many inscriptions, and some materials of this nature had 
found their way to the laboratories of scholars. But they 
could not be read. For a long time it was known that old 
Persian inscriptions were to be seen upon the ruined walls 
of Persepolis. As long ago as Niebuhr’s day the threefold 
character of these inscriptions was perceived. But not until 
Grotefend in 1802 hit upon the fact that these were actually 
three languages, the old Persian, the Median (or Susian) and 
the Babylonian, was the significance of the work as a key to 


—162 — 





Israel and the Monuments 


the cuneiform or wedge-shaped script of Babylonia com¬ 
prehended. The next and most decisive step was taken in 
3:835 by Henry C. Rawlinson, an English officer with the 
Persian army in the Zagros mountains. He discovered a 
great inscription cut on the side of the Behistun Rock in 
western Persia, near the old Median highway between Hama- 
dan and Kirmanshah. The former of these towns is the 
ancient Ecbatana, and both of them figured in the military 
operations of the world war. Rawlinson copied and trans¬ 
lated five columns of this inscription, which were later sent 
to Europe and published in 1847. The trilingual inscrip¬ 
tions of Persepolis furnished the key to open to the world 
the treasures of Babylonian and Assyrian literature, even as 
the Rosetta Stone disclosed the secrets of Egypt. 

The list of explorers and excavators in this part of the 
world is long and instructive. It includes the work of Botta 
at Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, near ancient Nineveh; Lay- 
ard at Nimrud, the ancient Calah; Loftus at Warka, the site 
of Erech; Taylor at Mugheir, the Ur of the Chaldees of 
Abraham’s day; Oppert at Hillah, the site of Babylon, and 
Birs Nimrud, the ancient Borsippa. In the course of these 
operations the former cities, temples, libraries and other im¬ 
portant possessions of such kings as Sargon I, Esarhaddon 
son of Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal and Nebuchadrezzar II 
were brought to light. George Smith found the Flood ac¬ 
count in 1872, and his work was continued by Rassam. 
Others who have been successful investigators in this field 
are de Sarzec, Peters, Ward, Haynes, Hilprecht, Koldeway, 
de Morgan, Andrae, Harper, Banks, Langdon, and Woolley. 
The important finds include the famous Black Obelisk of 

—163 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


Shalmaneser III, with its Jehu inscription, and great 
numbers of historical records of the Assyrian and Baby¬ 
lonian kings who had relations with Palestine and its 
people. 

The removal of Turkish authority from this region has 
permitted the resumption of excavation at numerous points 
since the World War, and a school of oriental research is 
being established at Bagdad which gives promise of valu¬ 
able results in the field of ancient Semitic culture. 

A third important civilization which left its impress 
upon the entire fertile crescent and is often mentioned in the 
Old Testament is that of the Hittites. It shared with the em¬ 
pires on the Tigris and the Nile the dominion of the Near 
East between 2750 and 1200 b.c. Its territory covered 
most of Asia Minor, and its chief centers were at Boghaz- 
Keui, Carchemish, Mitanni and Hamath. Great quantities 
of archaeological material have been gathered, which when 
deciphered will reveal the facts regarding this powerful state. 
No bilingual inscription has as yet been found, however, 
and though many attempts have been made to find the clue 
to the puzzling script, none of them can be said to have suc¬ 
ceeded completely. Scholars like Sayce, Winckler, Peiser, 
Jensen, Hogarth, Conder, Thompson, Garstang, Almsted 
and Woolley have made important contributions to our 
knowledge of this strange people. The Oriental Institute 
of the University of Chicago is carrying on work in this 
field, along with its other enterprises. Working at Alishar, 
128 miles east of Angora, Mr. Von der Osten and members 
of his staff have penetrated through two strata of Turkish 
deposits, and through Greek and Roman ruins to beds of 

—164 — 




Israel and the Monuments 


Hittite remains containing much pottery. Fifty-five Hit- 
tite towns have been located in central Asia Minor. 

Space does not permit consideration of the excavations 
in Greece and Asia Minor that have direct bearing upon New 
Testament problems. In Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Sardis, 
and several other cities mentioned in the early Christian 
records, much work has been done, with results of great 
value to biblical scholarship. Readers of Sir William Ram¬ 
say’s works on St. Paul and on the churches of the Apoca¬ 
lypse know of the earlier stages of those researches, and 
later activities in these areas have widened the domain of 
New Testament investigation. Nor is it possible or necessary 
to speak of the remarkable discoveries made in the island 
of Crete, where the evidences of Minoan occupation have 
been found in abundance. However significant the in¬ 
fluence of this civilization may have been upon the cultural 
life of Greece it was only indirectly exerted upon the 
peoples of the Levant, and that probably through Egyptian 
contacts. The tragedy of Knossos must have taken 
place before the end of the reign of Amenhotep III, about 
1475 b.c., and the fall of the house of Minos cut off abruptly 
whatever intercourse there had previously been between the 
Cretans and the Egyptians. It was not until the reign of 
Rameses III of the twentieth dynasty (1198-1167 b.c.) that 
Cretans, later called Philistines, coming from Crete and 
Asia Minor, were repulsed from Egypt and obtained a foot¬ 
hold in Canaan, from which fact the Greeks learned to call 
it after them Palistia or Palestine. Later still David chose 
his bodyguard from among these non-Hebrew warriors, 
and they are known in the Old Testament as the Cherithites- 

— 165 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Pelithites, i.e., Cretans-Philistines. The secrets of this pre- 
Grecian culture are as yet locked up in the thousands of 
tablets written in the Minoan script, which like the Hittite 
records await a Champolleon for their full decipherment. 

But the most interesting and important field for archae¬ 
ological adventure is of course the Holy Land. And here 
the problems have been more baffling and the conditions 
more difficult than in any other terrain. It is a very little 
country, “ the least of all lands,” as it has been called, and its 
most important localities, historically, were in the highland 
regions along that great backbone of mountains that stretches 
from the Lebanons far down into the Tih desert. Naturally 
the heavy rains of the autumn and spring wash down the 
soil to the plains and valleys, and with it much of the mate¬ 
rial which might otherwise have proved of historical value. 

Then it must be remembered that Palestine has been 
visited by severe earthquakes many times in its history. 
The Bible mentions some of these. The damage wrought 
by the visitation of 1927 in Jerusalem, Jericho, Nablus, and 
a number of other places is typical of the ravages occasioned 
by similar disturbances in the past. The land has suffered 
incalculably from war. Probably no section of the world’s 
surface has seen more devastation through the centuries. 
Jerusalem has endured more than thirty conquests, all the 
way from David to Allenby. Some of the invaders have 
left their records on the rocks at Dog River, that autograph 
album of northern Palestine. The country was the bridge 
across which caravans and armies had to pass in going from 
Egypt to the lands of the east, and as such it suffered con¬ 
stantly from deliberate attack and casual raids. Devastation, 


— 166 




Israel and the Monuments 


pillage, deforestation and fire were frequent experiences. 
It is not strange therefore that much of its testimony in build¬ 
ings, monuments, tombs and more perishable materials 
should have suffered complete destruction. And the same 
official obstructive tactics which the excavators have met in 
other portions of the former Turkish domain have been en¬ 
countered here, only in more aggressive form, as Palestine is 
one of the holy places to the Mohammedan as well as to 
the Jew and the Christian. In spite of all these hindrances 
something has been done to secure the testimony which the 
land holds in its keeping, and since the world war and the 
change from Turkish to British administration the pros¬ 
pects are excellent for a new era of research. 

From the days of the Bordeaux Pilgrim the Holy Land 
has been visited by countless multitudes from all lands to 
which the Christian faith has gone. The narratives brought 
back stimulated desire to see the sacred sites and to add to 
their number. Queen Helena the mother of Constantine 
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 326 a.d. to discover the 
true location of the Holy Sepulchre, and appears to have ap¬ 
proved several of the fantastic stories which have been re¬ 
peated through the centuries to the detriment of an accurate 
knowledge of the topography of ancient Jerusalem. The ex¬ 
ploration of Palestine began with the work of Dr. Edward 
L. Robinson of New York in 1838. He prepared the first 
systematic description of the country under the title “ Bib¬ 
lical Researches,” in 1852. Others followed him, and in 
1865 the “Palestine Exploration Fund,” whose Quarterly 
Statements have been published regularly since that time, 
was organized in London. Under its direction Sir Charles 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Warren made a survey of Jerusalem, and Colonel C. R. 
Conder and Colonel (later General Lord) Kitchener made 
a survey and map of western Palestine, which was published 
in 1880. 

One of the results of the survey was the finding and 
distinguishing of many “tells” throughout the country. 
The tells are the mounds usually calling attention to the long 
abandoned cities or towns underneath. The mounds them¬ 
selves consist of waste products, or earth washed down from 
higher places, completely covering the sites. The general 
characteristics of the cities thus unearthed are houses built of 
unfinished stone, put together with a mortar made of mud. 
Flat mud roofs were common, and when the houses fell apart 
the stones were used again on top of the fallen mud, forming 
a higher deposit. Street levels rose by accumulations of 
waste until a city might have raised itself many feet between 
its first establishment and its final abandonment. Even¬ 
tually all of the stones would be taken elsewhere for build¬ 
ing purposes until only the waste foundations would be left 
to show the cultures of successive generations. 

Other records of abandoned cities are found in the “ khir- 
behs,” places showing one-time occupation but with no accu¬ 
mulation of waste and rubbish. Often the tells and khirbehs 
are quite close to one another, showing the probable abandon¬ 
ment of the tell for the khirbeh. Examinations of the 
tells have frequently told the story of various invasions. One 
stratum will have the coins and pottery of the Maccabees; 
one will show a Persian strain, another Amorite relics. The 
value of such stratification can easily be seen if it is studied 
layer by layer and not penetrated at unrelated points. 


—168 - 




Israel and the Monuments 


The serious work of excavation was begun by Professor 
Flinders Petrie, who arrived from Egypt in 1890 and started 
operations at Tell el-Hesy, which was found to be the ancient 
Lachish. He was followed in this enterprise by Dr. F. J. 
Bliss, who discovered the strata of eight cities on that site. 
This was veritably “ The Mound of Many Cities,” as he called 
it in his volume published in 1894. E)r. R. A. S. Macalister, 
during the years 1902-1909, undertook for the Fund the ex¬ 
amination of Tell el-Jazar, the Gezer of the Old Testament, 
and the Gazara of the Crusaders. These excavations were 
the most complete and successful of any yet carried on. They 
disclosed strata of occupation from pre-Semitic cave-dweller 
days, 2500 b.c., down to the Mohammedan period. Bliss 
and Macalister also carried on work at Tell Zakariya (sup¬ 
posed to be the biblical Azekah), Tell es-Safi (believed to be 
the ancient Philistine city of Gath, and known to the Cru¬ 
saders as Blanche-Garde), Tell el-Judeideh, unidentified as 
yet, and Tell Sandahanna (thought to be the town of Mo- 
reshah or Moresheth-gath, the home of the prophet Mi- 
cah). Duncan Mackenzie investigated Ain Shems (Beth- 
shemesh) for the Fund in 1911-1912. 

These activities led to the organization of other societies 
for research. As far back as 1878 the Deutsche Palastina- 
Verein began the publication of a journal. The Ecole Bib- 
lique under the auspices of the Dominican order has ex¬ 
cavated and published its results. The British School of 
Archaeology was founded a few years ago. The Austrians 
have a foundation. And the American School of Oriental 
Research, supported by the Archaeological Institute of 
America, has an admirable headquarters and library. 

—169 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


A few only of the more important excavations can be 
mentioned. Harvard University has carried on operations 
at Samaria for several years, under the direction of Professor 
D. G. Lyon, and later Dr. George A. Reisner. The founda¬ 
tions of the palaces of Omri and Ahab are among the im¬ 
portant discoveries made. Askelon, the Philistine city, later 
famous in -the story of the Crusades, has been investigated by 
Professor Garstang. The American School has carried on 
operations at Tell el-Ful, north of Jerusalem, a site believed 
to be the ancient Gibeah of Saul. The University of Penn¬ 
sylvania began work in 1922 at Beisan, the biblical Beth- 
shean, and perhaps the Hellenistic Scythopolis. Mr. Clar¬ 
ence S. Fisher has been the director. Various strata have 
been penetrated, all the way from 2000 b.c. to 800 a.d. . At the 
depth of about thirty feet he came upon the remains of a 
brick fortress of Seti 1(1313-1292 b.c.), within which were 
commemorative stelae of Seti I and Rameses II, together 
with a seated statue of the latter king. The great finds there 
have been Egyptian temples of Thothmes III and Ameno- 
phis III, the foundations of both outside and partition walls 
being well preserved. A temple of Astarte was also found, 
supposed to be the one in which the Philistines exhibited the 
armor of Saul and Jonathan. 1 At Beit-in, the ancient Bethel, 
excavations have disclosed the city wall and pottery dating 
from the iron and bronze ages. 

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago has 
been carrying forward excavational work at Megiddo, the 
Armageddon of the Apocalypse. Some finds had already 
been turned up by earlier workers, among them a seal of a 

1 1 Sam. 31:10. 


—170 — 





Israel and the Monuments 


man who calls himself the “ Servant of Jeroboam,” probably 
Jeroboam II. But a house has now been established there, 
and the work taken up in a systematic manner. Graves 
containing fine pottery, bronze implements and numbers of 
Egyptian scarabs, have been examined. Several valuable 
Babylonian seals have also been found. The finds so far 
give only a hint of the more important materials hoped for as 
the work goes on. Professor Bade, of the Pacific School of 
Religion, has carried on work at several points, chiefly of 
late at Nebi-Samwil, thought to be the ancient Mizpeh, 
where walls and other remains of the ancient town have been 
reached. 

It should be mentioned that the work so long and faith¬ 
fully prosecuted by the Franciscan fathers at Tell Hum has 
proved beyond question the authenticity of the site as the 
Capernaum of the times of Jesus. A synagogue, perhaps the 
very one mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, has been un¬ 
earthed and in part reconstructed. 

The announcement of a gift of two million dollars by 
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for a new museum in Jerusalem 
has brought great satisfaction to all biblical students. It 
means much for the future of archaeological research in 
Palestine. The site selected is near the American School of 
Oriental Research. 

The well-known finds of an earlier period, like the 
Siloam inscription, the Moabite Stone, the Madeba map, the 
Warning Stone, etc., need no comment. No new light ap¬ 
pears to have been thrown upon the vexed question of the 
location of the scene of the crucifixion and the sepulchre of 
Jesus, except to deepen the conviction of scholars that neither 






The Bible Through the Centuries 


the Church of the Holy Sepulchre nor the so-called Gor¬ 
don’s Calvary and Garden Tomb, the objects of so much 
Christian emotion, have any evidence in their favor. As 
one recent writer says, “ The only thing of which one 
can be sure is that none of these spots is authentic.” In fact 
the connection of the name of the sainted General Gordon 
with the tradition of the Garden Tomb is pure fiction. 

The cultural side of the discoveries made by the various 
workers is most interesting. In the last few years archaeol¬ 
ogists all over the world have been digging and classifying 
their relics until they have a very general idea of the stages 
of culture through which the earth and its inhabitants have 
passed. In Palestine, excavations have shown that it too 
experienced the stone, bronze and iron ages. Records of 
this kind are brought to light with the finding of weapons 
and ornaments which correspond to those designated 
as belonging to the Paleolithic period in Europe and 
America. 

A situation of peculiar interest to ethnologists is the ap¬ 
parent absence of the Neolithic period in this country. There 
seems to be no evidence of a culture earlier than that of the 
chipped flint tool stage. This is borne out by examination 
of strata all over the region. If this assumption is correct, 
the pottery commonly called Neolithic belongs to some other 
cultural period. 

The tools found, while very rude in finish, cover a 
variety of uses. There are many sorts of knives, the early 
flat axe, bronze chisels, saws, scrapers of flint, pestles and 
grindstones. The saw is a comparatively refined tool and is 
found only in the higher cultures. A great variety of stone 


— 172 — 




Israel and the Monuments 


hammers have been found, but few of metal. Nor have any 
files come to light, and but few awls and picks, and these 
of a late date. 

An interesting subject is the unearthed wooden plow of 
prehistoric date which is very similar to the one used even 
yet in Palestine. A sickle was made of serrated iron flakes 
fastened in wood. The grindstone consisted of stones which 
fitted into each other, and which were rubbed together back 
and forth rather than with a rotary motion. Very little ad¬ 
vance has been shown in the modernizing of the agricultural 
implements, a fact which gives an insight into the progress 
of the native Palestinian. Olive-presses and wine-presses 
are found in abundance. One reads of them in the Bible, 
and they evidently existed hundreds of years before its time. 
Their designs are various, some extremely simple and others 
more elaborate. 

Among the weapons are found the coup-de-poing, one 
of the greatest inventions of primitive culture, the club of 
hard wood, and various shaped stones of varying weight and 
size, depending upon the prospective uses. Arrows are not 
very common, although in Europe they are plentiful. Many 
daggers and barbed spears have been found, the barbed in¬ 
strument being another noteworthy invention. Bronze and 
iron arrowheads are not common, but when they are found 
are usually of the famous leaf design. It is interesting to 
note that the leaf-shaped sword found in Europe is unknown 
in Palestine. 

Altogether, it seems that the culture of this area so 
far as tools and weapons are concerned is far below that of 
other localities. From Egypt came the famous potter’s 


— 173 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


wheel and the art of making bronze. But so far, no known 
culture has originated from the Palestinian region. 

With the discussion of tools and weapons goes always 
the consideration of the pottery. The evolution in shape and 
design is clearly shown from the squat rounded vessels of 
elementary decoration and color to the graceful figures of 
fancy design, decorated before firing. It is of interest to 
note the abrupt decline in culture that occurred with the 
immigration of the Hebrews and their rule, involving the 
loss of grace and beauty. In the post-exilic time the culture 
again advances, this time showing direct evidence of the 
Greek influence and the consequent improvement. The 
pottery is decorated with better colors, more carefully baked 
and is of better shape and smoother finish. The abundance 
of wine jars shows the presence of an active wine trade. As 
time went on, pottery showed other tendencies; the Roman 
and Byzantine influence supplanted the Greek. There seems 
to have been no original Palestinian work; all was a result 
of other cultures. The Greek potters were wont to decorate 
their products with Greek letters, and these when copied 
by the Palestinian artisans soon became distorted and 
changed until they eventually evolved into conventional pat¬ 
terns and designs, having no significance whatever, another 
evidence of the unoriginality of Palestinian culture. 

Caves as dwelling places are quite common now as in 
biblical times in Palestine. As in the cave dwellings in Mex¬ 
ico, the floors and walls reveal the level of the inhabiting 
people. In Mexico however the state of civilization was 
comparatively high. In Palestine it seems to have been of 
the crudest. Stone weapons and the poorest of pottery are 


— 174 



Israel and the Monuments 


characteristic of these caves. In many instances, as at Beit 
Jibrin, the caves run back into tortuous passages extending 
long distances, the entrance of which might be far from 
the exit. 

The city people however had houses of the type un¬ 
earthed in the tells. Little more remains in any case than 
the foundation of what were probably low flat huts. The 
houses were partitioned into two or three rooms and were 
made of stones put together with mud mortar. The win¬ 
dows probably consisted of a sort of lattice-work. The roofs 
were made of mud and had to be refinished each year be¬ 
cause of the damage done by rain and sun. Occasional brick 
houses have been found, the bricks being of a soft material 
and very large. As well as can be seen the houses are built 
surrounded by a high wall, ensuring privacy to the occu¬ 
pants. Cisterns, most important in a town without central 
water system, supplied two or three houses. Their size de¬ 
pended in great part upon the number to be supplied and 
upon the consistency of the ground through which they 
were bored. Many were bored twenty or thirty feet deep 
through rock; all were lined with a smooth cement to keep 
them water-tight. 

In general the villages were composed of a number of 
houses, with cisterns and perhaps a shrine. It is seldom that 
other buildings have been found except in and around Jeru¬ 
salem. All of the cities were protected by walls with gates 
and towers. The walls were of varying thickness from a 
few feet to as much as sixteen (that of Gezer) or twenty 
(that of the City of David). The stones composing the walls 
are generally huge and unornamented, and these walls were 


— 175 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


built more strongly than the houses and were more frequently 
repaired, for upon the walls, of course, depended the safety 
of the inhabitants. 

Excavations have revealed the great propensity of the 
early Palestinian for games of chance. Curiously enough, 
many examples of gaming tables of lined limestone are 
found, usually marked off more or less into squares or other 
shaped spaces. The “ playing men ” may have been small 
stones. 

In so far as sanitation is concerned Palestine was as 
backward as in other things. During the period of Macca- 
bean influence, it is true, a sort of pipe was made of jar tops 
fitted together so that the sewage was carried away from the 
house. In Jerusalem several more complicated drains were 
found, but these are an exception rather than the rule. The 
water supply was well attended to. Tunnels were cut 
through solid rock. At Gezer, for instance, the tunnel 
reached to 94 feet below the surface of the ground. Reser¬ 
voirs, the so-called Solomon’s Pools, really made in the time 
of Herod, were constructed near Jerusalem with aqueducts 
for the carrying of water to the city where it was kept in 
large community pools. It was essential to the safety of the 
people that their sources of water be within the city walls. 

A discussion of the culture of an ancient people is not 
complete without some reference to the writing existent. 
No one script has ever had exclusive use in Palestine. It 
was at first supposed that the old Hebrew script did not exist 
before 1000 b.c The finding of certain tablets, however, 
leads students to believe that this script was used at least as 
early as Rameses II, and that it was then deteriorating, thus 

—176 — 




Israel and the Monuments 


arguing its better form even centuries earlier. There are 
several references to writing and if this is true the art of writ¬ 
ing must have been more common then than it was centuries 
later. The only records of writing still remaining, of course, 
are in the stone tablets, the manuscripts of papyrus having 
long since disintegrated and disappeared. Calendars have 
been found as have limestone coffins with the name of the 
deceased on the outside. This last shows a rather higher 
state of civilization than seems to be the general level of 
Palestine. 

Of great value to the excavator are the tombs. It is un¬ 
fortunate that they have been the objects of the thieving 
depredations of natives, and it is not unlikely that many 
valuable evidences of extinct culture have been lost. Various 
were the devices used by the families of the deceased to keep 
the grave intact, usually without avail. Tourists pay a high 
price for any sort of relic, with the consequent result that 
the graves are denuded of all pottery, gold, ornaments and 
whatever else was found. Still it is possible to distinguish 
the types of tombs used. 

Those of the Canaanites are mostly natural caves, with 
an occasional shaft to mark a grave. In these tombs have 
been found pottery, knives and ornaments of bronze, all of 
an inferior type. The Hebrew tombs consisted of small 
rooms hewed in the rocks with benches cut into the wall 
on which the bodies were probably placed. So far the graves 
uncovered have been poor in quality and offerings, and it 
seems unlikely that they belong to the richer classes. 

A more elaborate tomb fashioned after the Egyptian 
style was unearthed near Silwan, and is called the “ Egyp- 


— 177 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


tian tomb ” because of this marked influence. During the 
Maccabean and Ptolemaic periods the tombs consisted of 
small flat rooms with the opening at the top through which 
people dropped to the floor below. The bodies were set in 
rows and the offerings were again of poor quality. Later on 
the tombs were more artistic in decoration, another result 
of the Greek influence. On these later tombs were often 
found sculptured slabs bearing figures of animals and men. 
The Tell Barak sarcophagus shows a high type of decorative 
ability worthy of the later Roman art. 

Students have been much interested to see if the products 
of excavation in any way confirm the biblical accounts of re¬ 
ligious progress. The evidence is not, of course, complete, 
but as far as it goes there seems to be an accord between it 
and the Bible. In many places that would produce a wealth 
of evidence could it be secured, there is some sacred shrine 
or graveyard whose removal would enrage the natives. This 
is true of the mount of Gezer which is now a graveyard. 
Excavators believe that below could be found letters and 
records, but they are as yet inaccessible. 

References are found to the high places, the sanotuaries 
of religious hermits or fanatics, or shrines where offerings 
were placed. At Tell-es-Safi there are ruins which might 
easily have been one of these places. Three large stones were 
standing together facing towards the semicircular northern 
wall. Off one side were several smaller rooms, an arrange¬ 
ment suggesting the use of ceremonies and ritual. At Gezer 
was found a more elaborate ruin of the same general type 
but with stones that had evidently been brought from an¬ 
other region. It is hard to tell what ceremonies were per- 

—178 — 




Israel and the Monuments 


formed at these shrines. The finding of phallic emblems 
may be the keynote to them. At any rate the prophets were 
loud in their denunciations of the high places; but that they 
persisted to the destruction of Jerusalem is certain. The 
ancient Semites like other primitive peoples had their per¬ 
sonal and national gods whom they worshiped. There was 
the goddess of fertility, the god who looked after cattle, the 
one who cared for the crops. One of-the most common 
forms for the god-image was that of the bull, which was 
supposed to be the protector of cattle and other animals. 

The Bible speaks much of sacrifices, and excavations 
have revealed a number of altars which had evidently been 
used for that purpose. The gods in return for their watch¬ 
ful care over the crops and livestock were repaid with 
gifts. Other primitive people gave to the gods the first of 
their crops, their animals and their children, and so did the 
Semites. Remains have been found of young babies a day or 
so old deposited in jars and buried under thresholds and 
near the altar places. Whether they were killed for that 
purpose is not known, but it is probable that human sac¬ 
rifice was practiced. Probably these foundation offerings 
were intended to insure the welfare of the household. 

Numerous amulets of various kinds have been found, 
and in the remains of houses, door-post deities and other 
household gods have been uncovered. In the ruins of these 
buildings one probably finds the origin of our custom of lay¬ 
ing a corner stone in a new building. The original cere¬ 
mony perhaps called for the killing of a human being, 
either a slave or a child, and the placing of the body under 
a corner of the edifice to ward off the evil spirits and cause 


— 179 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the gods to bless the house and its future occupants. At a 
later date, animals were used instead of human beings. In 
both cases it was not unusual for the sacrifice to be buried 
alive instead of first being killed. The modern corner stone 
deposit is no doubt a survival of this custom, but in the age 
of the early Semites the living sacrifices were used. 

Using their cultural history as a background, it is sur¬ 
prising that a religion with the high ethical values of the 
Hebrew should have come from such a humble source. Per¬ 
haps it could not be expected that one country should excel 
in more than one thing. To be the mother country of the 
monotheistic religions would be enough honor for any 
civilization. Perhaps in the future other discoveries will 
be made that will cast a different light upon the early life 
of these people, and it is to be hoped that the prosecution of 
archaeological researches in the interest of biblical knowledge 
will be rewarded by even more valuable discoveries than have 
yet been made. 


—180 




XII 

RISE AND LITERATURE OF JUDAISM 

The story of the Jews and Judaism is intimately con¬ 
nected with biblical interests, although strictly speaking 
neither the Old Testament nor the New relates primarily 
to the Jewish people. The Old Testament is the surviving 
literature of the Hebrew race during the time in which He¬ 
brew was a living tongue and to a limited extent in the 
period in which that language was yielding to Aramaic and 
Greek. In that later time Judaism was in its beginnings. 
Hebrew life, the political and religious movement that be¬ 
gan with the arrival of the tribes in Canaan about 1250 b.c. 
came gradually to its close with the fall of Jerusalem in 
586 b.c. and the consequent dispersion of the nation into 
Babylonia, Egypt and other sections of the Near East. 

Already in 722 b.c. the national life of the Hebrews had 
been dealt a severe blow by the conquest of Samaria by the 
Assyrians and the collapse of die kingdom of Israel. The 
people of the northern kingdom were not greatly disturbed 
territorially by this event, but they lost their status as a na¬ 
tion, and the country became a province of the empire, with 
a mixed population whose descendants were known as 
Samaritans, and a small group of whom remain to the pres¬ 
ent time. At that time the Hebrew people as a political 
unit found itself reduced to the small territory of Judah 


—181 — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


with its center at Jerusalem. When that city was destroyed 
by the Babylonians there was nothing left of the old national 
enterprise save the forlorn and scattered fragments of the 
population, such portions of the Hebrew Scriptures as had 
thus far taken form, and the memories of the past now gone 
forever. 

A half century later, when some of the scars of the 
tragedy had healed, and the control of the world had passed 
by the conquests of Cyrus from Semitic to Indo-European 
hands, the shattered group in Judah gathered a measure of 
courage, and began to dream of a new beginning. Already 
they were taking the name of Jews, from their little province 
in the south of Palestine. In sudh passages as 2 Kings 16:6 
and 25:25 the word is used of inhabitants of the old south¬ 
ern kingdom, who might well have borne it at any time 
after the fall of Samaria. It is used in that sense in several 
of the later passages in Jeremiah. Under the influence of 
such local leaders as the prophets Haggai and Zechariah 
they set about the reconstruction of the temple on a very 
modest scale, and from that time there was a slow and 
rather discouraging revival of Jerusalem. The related peo¬ 
ple in other lands who had been deported or had taken ref¬ 
uge abroad were also known as Jews, as one learns from 
such late documents as Esther, Nehemiah, Ezra and Daniel. 

The relation of this widely scattered people to the 
ancient Hebrews became of course increasingly remote 
in time, locality and kinship. From the first the Hebrew 
tribes had been little concerned with racial integrity. While 
they probably shared the general tendencies to endogamy 
discovered in most racial groups, they had from the first 


— 182- 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


freely intermarried with the Canaanites and other tribes 
found in Canaan, and gradually absorbed them. Naturally 
they had their prejudices against other peoples, like the 
neighboring nations. But that did not prevent a sufficient 
degree of amalgamation to make the claim of pure He¬ 
brew blood largely a fiction. It was the rapid growth of 
the narrower tendency in the period of the revival of Judah 
that led to drastic efforts at exclusiveness during the period 
of Nehemiah and Ezra. But the success of the attempted re¬ 
form was limited, and the tradition of tribal integrity and 
racial purity among the Jews is rather an ideal and a romance 
than a reality. 

Considering the largely imaginary nature of that racial 
integrity of which so much has been made, both by Jewish 
and non-Jewish writers, it is necessary only to add that the 
connection between the Hebrews of the Old Testament and 
the Jews of the Roman and the later Christian periods is of 
the most tenuous nature. The modern Jew is as little related 
to the Hebrew race that produced the writings of the proph¬ 
ets and the sages of Israel as is the modern Greek of Mace¬ 
donia to the Athenian of the days of Pericles, or the modern 
Italian to the Roman of the classic age. Indeed far less. 
For in the case of the present-day Greek or Italian there is a 
certain continuity of geographical location and linguistic in¬ 
heritance which in the case of the Jew is quite lacking. 

The Hebrew language began to pass away as a living 
tongue with the fall of Jerusalem. It gradually gave place 
to Aramaic in Palestine. In the lands of the dispersion the 
local tongues were adopted. Greek, widely spread by the 
conquests of Alexander, became the common literary tongue 

— 183 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


of Jews as well as of other races. The Jews scattered 
throughout the world in later days naturally adopted the 
speech of their environment. But the tongue that has char¬ 
acterized them for some centuries is known as the Yiddish, 
a name derived from Judah, but actually a composite lan¬ 
guage, partaking of elements of German, Russian and Span¬ 
ish, with slight admixture of Hebrew and English, and writ¬ 
ten in the Aramaic alphabet that superseded the Hebrew. 

There is no need to claim for the Jew a fictitious racial 
inheritance. He has quite enough credit of another sort. 
His contributions to world thinking and activity have been 
sufficient to assure him a place in the sun. He does not re¬ 
quire the borrowed glory of another race. It is therefore a 
misuse of terms to speak of the Hebrews of the Old Testa¬ 
ment period as Jews, just as it is quite unhistorical to apply 
the term Hebrew to the modern Jew. It is true that some 
writers who deal with the religion of Israel speak of it as 
Judaism, and allow the term to describe the entire sweep of 
both Hebrew and Jewish history. But this practice cannot 
be defended on any grounds of historical exactness. Hebrew 
history and religion find their place in the centuries that saw 
Israel carrying on the enterprises of political and religious 
life in Palestine down to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c., and 
to a constantly diminishing degree in the centuries that 
followed. The nation was gone, and while ardent spirits 
cherished the dream of a restoration of its former glory, 
these dreams prove frustrate. To record the story of the past, 
and even to face the advent of new ideas, new speech and new 
religious institutions with the spasmodic efforts of apoca¬ 
lypticism and the imitation of the classic form of writing, 

—184 — 





Rise and Literature of Judaism 


was all that remained to a generation that had seen the col¬ 
lapse of the prophetic order and the disappearance of the tem¬ 
ple service. During the same period another movement 
was taking form, a movement so different in character that 
it received scant attention from the survivors of the older 
regime, and based its procedure on wholly distinct principles. 

The great dispersion began early and continued either 
in periodic impulses or in gradual and continuous migration 
throughout the history. From the times of the first tribal 
settlements in Canaan in the days of the patriarchs the He¬ 
brews moved easily and frequently into other lands. Echoes 
of this tendency are found in the early narratives, usually in 
the form of individual adventures, but in reality carrying the 
implication of clan movements. Such departures into the 
desert regions south and east, 1 the highlands of Aram, 2 
Egypt, 3 Philistia, 4 Moab, 5 etc., though represented as 
personal experiences of Hebrew leaders, certainly hint at 
more general and permanent removals. 

The period of sojourn of some of the Hebrew clans in 
Egypt is not known, but the exodus, though pictured as a 
mass movement carrying all the people along, probably left 
a considerable body of Hebrews in Egypt, and dropped others 
along the road of the pilgrimage in the regions of Sinai- 
Horeb, Midian and the East Jordan country. In later days 
trading opportunities took Hebrews to other lands, 6 and 
probably led to permanent groups in those outer regions. 

The greater dispersions, of course, came in the days of 
Assyrian and Babylonian supremacy. When Samaria was 

1 Gen. 2.5 :i-6; 2 Gen. z8:io; 3 Gen. 39:1; 46:6, 7; 4 Ex. io:i; 14:34; 16:1; 
6 Ruth 1:1; 1 Sam. 11:3, 4; 6 See e.g. 1 Kings 10:34. 

— 185 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


taken by Sargon in 721 b.c., following the usual policy of 
expatriation, the Assyrians evidently removed those of the 
people who were most likely to prove troublesome if left 
in the land. They were taken to new regions in the east, and 
the conquerors brought in people from their other provinces, 
so that the mixed population would lose its integrity and the 
backbone of rebellion would be broken. From the critical 
standpoint of the later Judean prophets who wrote the rec¬ 
ord, these Israelites of the north were totally removed from 
the land on account of their sins.* This is evidently too long 
a bow to draw. It was never the policy of the conquering 
nations to go to the trouble and expense of transferring en¬ 
tire populations. Their plan was rather to break the spirit 
of the peoples they subdued by destroying their sense of 
unity, their institutions and their traditions. It is not prob¬ 
able that any considerable proportion of the people of Israel 
was actually transported to Assyria. In that sense the “ ten 
lost tribes” were never “lost.” They lost out, they were 
reduced to a subject condition, and were forced into con¬ 
tact with people they despised.f But as time passed assimi¬ 
lation took place. And even the strict and orthodox Jews 
of later days who regarded their descendants, the Samaritans 
of their time, with bitter aversion, were compelled to make 
a distinction between these half brethren of theirs and the 

* Notice the long and explicit review of this episode and its causes by the 
writers of i Kings 17. As they told the story the entire population of Northern 
Israel was replaced by strangers. 

f The fantastic guesses of Anglo-Israelism and other speculative theories 
which discover the ten tribes in other lands and different periods are of course 
baseless. They are &s little credible as the discovery of mystic and prophetic values 
in the dimensions of the great pyramid, or the construction of a program of human 
history from Daniel and the Apocalypse. 

—186— 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


world of pagan heathenism outside.* That the number 
of Hebrews taken to the east was relatively small is further 
probable from the fact that no literature later than the Priest 
Code is known to have taken form among them, and no 
traditions have survived of their having any place in later 
history. In this they were less fortunate than their brethren 
of the Judean dispersion after the fall of Jerusalem. 

That dispersion, which had already begun ten years 
earlier in 597, when a considerable body of Judeans of whom 
the young Ezekiel was a member, was taken eastward, was 
brought to its tragic consummation in 586 b.c. when Nebu¬ 
chadrezzar besieged the city and left it in ruins. Apparently 
the impulse to find refuge from Babylonian vengeance took 
the unhappy people in all directions. As in the case of 
northern Israel, some of them were taken to Babylonia, for 
the same reasons that had led to the deportation of the 
Israelites to Assyria. Many went to Egypt, that inviting 
asylum of the oppressed in all ages. There they multiplied 
and their numbers were increased by additional migrations 
at intervals. Two centuries later Jewish mercenaries and 
merchants were settled in various parts of Egypt in com¬ 
munities like that of Elephantine, far to the south, on the 
borders of Nubia, where a temple was built and sacrifices 
were offered to Ya’u or Jahveh. 

Probably the majority of the population of Judah was 
left unmolested in the land. They were not considered 
worth taking away. Even Jeremiah counted them as but 

* This is shown by the fact that although the first Jewish Christian 
preachers refrained scrupulously from preaching the gospel to Gentiles (Act 11:19), 
it was not regarded as a breach of propriety when the message was proclaimed 
among the Samaritans (Acts 8 :i-z5). 

—187 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


chaff compared with the wheat that had departed. That 
remnant in Judah was further reduced by internal troubles 
and by encroachments from outside. The Nabateans pushed 
into the south of the province, and the Samaritans, occupying 
the ancient territory of Israel, encroached on the north. 

When the conqueror Cyrus took Babylon in 538 b.c. and 
issued his famous decree permitting the expatriates in his 
empire to return to their homes and rebuild their institutions, 
it might well be supposed that the descendants of the He¬ 
brew exiles would instantly close with the opportunity and 
return en masse. But they did nothing of the sort. Why 
should they ? A half century had passed since their fathers 
left the shores of the Mediterranean. They were living in a 
world of wealth and culture as compared with little Pales¬ 
tine. Under the urgent pleadings and confident assurances 
of the Second Isaiah and of Ezekiel, a few of them did make 
the adventure. But this was rather a sacrificial and heroic 
missionary exploit than a popular movement. The total 
number of those who came from the east during the next 
two centuries was comparatively small, as is shown by the 
census lists in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7. There is no indica¬ 
tion that a single one of those who went out from Jerusalem 
in the day of its fall ever returned. 

In truth the impulse to undertake the revival of Judah 
and to rebuild the temple came from within the little com¬ 
munity of Judah itself. Those who came in the two or 
three groups with Sheshbazzar 7 and the two leaders Zerub- 
babbel and Joshua 8 were few in numbers and helped but 
little in the enterprise. The hopes so often expressed that a 

7 Ezra 1:5-11; 8 Ezra 3:1-13. 

— 188- 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


great company of patriotic Hebrews would arrive and push 
forward the restoration of the city were largely illusory. 
The Chronicler and his contemporaries writing at a much 
later time evidently took this optimistic view of the history. 
But the very documents which he incorporated in his nar¬ 
rative, including the journals of Nehemiah and Ezra, give a 
different aspect to the matter. 

It was the native leaders Haggai and Zechariah who 
stirred the people of the province to the enterprise of re¬ 
building the temple. It is significant that these two proph¬ 
ets always speak of their fellow Hebrews in the vicinity 
of the site of Jerusalem as “ the remnant,” i.e., the people 
who were left in Judah when the dispersion took place. 9 To 
them they made their appeals to take up the work of re¬ 
building the temple. Apparently they used the political 
figure of Zerubbabel, a survivor of the royal line, and the 
priestly authority of Joshua at their full value. But they 
received little actual assistance from these weak leaders. 
By constant and insistent effort they secured the building 
of the temple, whose modest dimensions and meager equip¬ 
ment contrasted so pathetically with the glory of Solomon’s 
structure. 10 

After the completion of this building in 516 b.c. silence 
falls over the scene. At rare intervals a litde light is let in 
by such documents as Malachi, whose picture is gloomy 
enough, and perhaps some of the Psalms. But the days were 
evil and the times were out of joint. Conditions in Judah 
were increasingly desperate. When the little deputation of 
Hebrews made the journey to Susa in 445 b.c. to intercede 
9 See Hag. 1:12., 14; 11, 4; Zech. 7:5, etc.; 10 Ezra 3:11, 13. 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


with the only man who seemed able to help them, Nehemiah 
the Jewish chamberlain of Artaxerxes I (465-424 b.c.), they 
reported to him “ concerning the Jews that had escaped, 
which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. 
And they said, The remnant that are left of the captivity there 
in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The 
wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned 
with fire.” 11 The term “ Jews ” is used in this and similar 
passages in its geographical sense, as relating to the people 
of the province of Judah. 

With patriotic devotion Nehemiah requested from his 
sovereign the difficult and thankless post of viceroy in Ju¬ 
dah, and by his extraordinary ability, enthusiasm and gen¬ 
erosity rallied the people to the reconstruction of the walls 
of Jerusalem and the most obvious and necessary civic re¬ 
forms. Soon after Ezra arrived with a group of priests and 
Levites, bringing with him from the east the latest revision of 
the law, that body of institutes which is generally known as 
the Priest Code. 12 This seems to have been in 397 b.c., the 
seventh year of Artaxerxes II (404-358). Full of zeal for the 
correction of the manners and the practices of the com¬ 
munity, in harmony with the rules adopted by the stricter 
Hebrew schools of the further orient, Ezra set himself at 
once to the work of moral and liturgical reform. His dis¬ 
covery that the people of Judah were freely intermarrying 
with the non-Hebrews among them filled him with dismay, 
coming as he did from scribal circles in Persia where the 
expansion and elaboration of the laws of the past was the 
chief employment. The laws against intermarriage with 

u Neh. 1:1-3; 12 Ezra 7:1-18. 


— I90 — 





Rise and Literature of Judaism 


other nationalities such as were embodied in the Deutero- 
nomic code were not rigorous, but were generally in harmony 
with the custom of endogamy prevailing among many 
peoples. They were never enforced, and like other specifica¬ 
tions of the code, were treated rather as ideals than mandates. 
The protests made against the practice by prophets like 
Malachi 13 and officials like Nehemiah 14 seem to have been 
prompted by the social injustice done the Hebrew women of 
the small community by the men who took wives from 
neighboring districts rather than from their own group. 

In Ezra’s efforts to create a strictly segregated social unit 
wholly free from the admixture of gentile elements he met 
strong opposition and achieved little success. The people 
were as much surprised and puzzled by his outbreak of re¬ 
forming zeal as he had been by their ignorance or indiffer¬ 
ence concerning the principle of separatism. But he carried 
on and intensified the movement looking to strict nation¬ 
alism, begun as far back as the days of Ezekiel and carried 
to greater lengths by Joel, to make of their people a strictly 
exclusive community, with no relations with other races. 
This was of course impossible. The Hebrew race with its 
free customs of intermarriage had now practically disap¬ 
peared into many lands. A different race was coming into 
being, an amalgam of many stocks and somewhat more 
inclined under its new leadership to tribal exclusiveness, 
legal correctness and ritualistic conformity. The things 
that bound it to the Hebrew tradition were precisely the 
elements that entered deeply into the other two later mon¬ 
otheistic religions — Christianity and Mohammedanism. 

13 i:io, ii; 14 13:13-17. 


191 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Those fundamentals were a profound belief in the God who 
had revealed himself to the prophets, and a deep reverence 
for the Scriptures which the prophets, priests and sages of 
Israel had transmitted to them. In three different directions 
these daughter faiths of Hebraism took their way. Juda¬ 
ism was first in time, soon followed by Christianity, and 
later by Islam. From that ancient and venerable literature 
of the Old Testament descended three daughter literatures. 
First of them Christianity produced its body of writings 
which we know as the New Testament and which dated 
from the first and earlier part of the second centuries. Sec¬ 
ond, Judaism, gradually consenting to commit its oral teach¬ 
ings to written form and organizing its Talmud from the 
second to the sixth centuries a.d. And third, Islam with its 
Koran, drawn both from biblical and Talmudic sources and 
taking form virtually in a single literary impulse in the 
seventh century of our era. 

Judaism has a noble history, and has achieved notable 
results. It has made sufficient contributions to morality and 
religion to entitle it to a place of honor among the world’s 
great faiths. Of course it gains nothing from fictitious 
claims to identity with the religion of Israel, and its history is 
in a totally different compartment of human annals. As 
the Hebrew state collapsed with the Babylonian conquest of 
the holy city, and the institutions of Hebrew life declined 
with the loss of the temple, the abandonment of sacrifice and 
other priestly offices, the people who still clung to the 
national faith turned to the production of a literature that 
should preserve as much as possible of their former ideals 
from destruction. The years that followed the catastrophe 


192 — 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


of 586 b.c. witnessed the writing of some of the most im¬ 
portant portions of the Old Testament. Prophecy burst forth 
into its finest flowering in the oracles of the Second Isaiah. 
Poets and psalmists were moved to their noblest efforts. The 
prophetic narratives of earlier times were gathered up and 
given fresh exposition. Priestly recitals and laws were ex¬ 
panded and reinterpreted. But it was the expiring breath of 
the Hebrew genius. More and more prophecy yielded to 
apocalypticism and priestly comment to scribism and ritual 
elaboration. The Hebrew speech gradually gave way to 
Aramaic, and at last to Greek. The nation had vanished 
from its place in history, and a new movement, a new cul¬ 
ture and a different body of ethical and religious teaching 
succeeded. 

There was no moment at which the historian could say, 
This is the end of the Hebrew life; now comes Judaism. 
The two movements were for a time contemporary, Hebra¬ 
ism declining to its end, and Judaism rising to significance. 
That was the condition during the Persian period and into 
the days of Macedonian rule. Hebrew voices were still 
heard, as in the final writings of prophets, sages and psalm¬ 
ists. But the synagogue was already taking its place as the 
center of worship in the Jewish world; the struggle of or¬ 
thodoxy with hellenism was bringing in new speculations 
and doubtful philosophies. The brilliant achievements of the 
new Jewish race under their Maccabean leaders opened the 
way for a brief return of political power which seemed to re¬ 
vive the hopes for a restoration of ancient Hebrew royalty. 
But all the movements of the age took a different direction. 
The Jewish parties, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, 


— 193 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


and in later days the Herodian partisans and the nationalists 
or Zealots, took their different attitudes on the important in¬ 
terests of the time. The Pharisees were the puritans of the 
age, emphasizing the necessity of knowledge of the law, es¬ 
pecially the oral law that was the prized possession of the 
rabbinical schools, and could not be committed to writing. 
The Sadducees, the owners of the rich temple franchises, 
and the group to which belonged the priesthood, hoped to 
secure nationalism by skillful intrigue, while the Zealots were 
ready to attempt it by force against the hated Romans. 

Meantime Jerusalem that had struggled through many 
years of difficulty, described by the author of Daniel as the 
“ sixty-two weeks of years in which it was rebuilt with street 
and moat, but in troublous times,” 15 came to its greatest 
glory in the reign of Herod the Idumean favorite of Rome, 
who rebuilt the temple, erected palaces and walls, and made 
of it a real capital. In those years when Jesus was growing 
into manhood among the hills of Galilee, Judaism reached 
its most opulent estate. The population of Jerusalem was 
larger than ever before. Proselytes came to the feasts and 
swelled the ranks of the believers. Earnest efforts were made 
by Jewish teachers both to connect their new enterprise with 
the ancient Hebrew faith and to interpret their religion in 
terms more acceptable to men of the Greek type. The sever¬ 
ities of the Mosaic rules were modified in favor of a more 
cosmopolitan spirit.* Philo (20 B.C.-40 a.d.) was applying 
the allegorical method to the Old Testament, and attempting 


* The Jewish zeal for securing proselytes was the theme of one of the half 
ironical comments attributed to Jesus (Matt. 2.3:15). 

18 Dan. 9:15. 


I94 — 





Rise and Literature of Judaism 


to show that the Hebrew Scriptures contained the highest 
principles of the Greek philosophy. He also struck the note 
of mysticism in his writings that appealed to new types of 
mind now for the first time interested in the Jewish religion. 
In a very true sense Philo divides with Ezekiel and Ezra the 
honor of being the founders of Judaism. 

Meantime the dispersion of Jews continued. They 
went out from Palestine as mercenary soldiers in the Roman 
armies. They were lured into far lands by opportunities for 
trade. The founders of new cities offered inducements to 
citizenship which appealed to them. Then there was al¬ 
ways the danger of trouble in Palestine. Messianic hopes 
were kindled by a succession of claimants to that title. 
During three centuries a score of movements in behalf of 
one and another of these pretenders excited the people and 
brought down upon their promoters the heavy hand of 
Roman power. All these events were factors in the continuing 
dispersion of Jews, and their enforced absorption to a marked 
degree into the populations among which they were cast. 
That they maintained their identity and separateness at all 
is astonishing, considering the vicissitudes through which 
great numbers of them passed. In spite of these difficulties 
however Jewish communities took root and flourished in 
most of the chief cities of the Graeco-Roman world. Many 
thousands of them were scattered through Persia and Baby¬ 
lonia as is indicated in the book of Esther, which, though it 
is probably pure fiction, is based on a general sentiment re¬ 
garding Jewish conditions in the east. Jewish schools flour¬ 
ished there as had those of Hebrew character in the times 
of Ezra. The best work of the scribes in commentation 


195 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


upon the law took form in Babylonia. In later days the 
Babylonian Talmud was much larger than that of Jeru¬ 
salem. In Alexandria two-fifths of the population was said 
to be Jewish. In the cities of Europe Jews were living in 
large numbers. One whole section of Rome beyond the 
Tiber was occupied by Jews. And similar colonies of that 
race were found in Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi and other 
cities of the west. The apostle Paul was a product of the 
Diaspora, or dispersion, being born in Tarsus a Roman city 
of Cilicia, and the story of his ministry is full of contacts 
with Jews in the various places he visited. Like others of 
his racial group he insisted that the Jews of his time were 
the rightful heirs of the ancient Hebrew traditions. His first 
preaching everywhere was done in the synagogues, and only 
when his Jewish brethren refused him audience did he turn 
to gentile hearers. 

The final tragedy of the Jewish state came with the war 
into which fanatical leaders plunged the nation in the years 
69 and 70 a.d. Josephus the Jewish historian of that period 
has left the record of that futile struggle of the Jews in 
Palestine against the power of Rome. The city was taken by 
Titus and completely destroyed. Many thousands of its 
people, and of Jews from other lands who had come to the 
city to attend the annual feast, perished in that catastrophe. 
On the ruins of Jerusalem there rose a Roman city in a later 
time, and many times since has it been besieged, captured, 
dismantled and rebuilt. But the Jewish possession passed 
with that event of the year 70 a.d. Through the long cen¬ 
turies of its history Jerusalem has been held by Jebusites, 
Hebrews, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, 

—196— 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


Parthians, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks and Syrians, and since 
the world war it is under a Christian mandate held by Great 
Britain. None of these races has held it for any considerable 
period, though the Hebrew people came nearest to an en¬ 
during title. Palestine belongs to all the nations by right of 
their religious interest in it. Christians, Jews and Moslems 
alike regard it as a holy land. All should have the right 
of pilgrimage and residence there. None of them can 
very well maintain a claim to Palestine as a “ homeland,’” 
unless it is the Arab-Syrian population, which comprises 
nine-tenths of the inhabitants today. The people who 
nervously search the Bible for predictions of the “return 
of the Jews to Palestine” are spending their time in vain. 

The Jews have the same rights in Palestine as all other 
people, the same and no more. In the long stretch of the 
years they only occupied it for some three centuries, and 
that so long ago that other races have taken title to the 
land by right of occupation. The modern Jew can do very 
much to improve conditions in the holy land, and to ad¬ 
vance the status of those Jews of the Sephardic and Aske- 
nazim groups who live as pensioners upon the charity of 
their more energetic brethren in the west. Admirable agri¬ 
cultural settlements are fostered by Jewish philanthropy in 
various sections of the country. Jewish educational interests 
are projecting schools that will be of value to the land and 
to the Jewish people throughout the world. Engineering 
projects promise to increase the fertility of the soil. And 
Palestine will always be an inviting field for the commercial 
Jew as well as others who can furnish facilities and com¬ 
modities to the host of visitors from all lands Who are 


— 197 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


attracted to Syria by religious interest, or the desire to pursue 
studies in biblical archaeology and history on the ground, 
or are merely casual tourists. But the great majority of 
Jewish people are in no way interested in Palestine save as 
a remote and vague memory of their race. Its little area 
would at the best accommodate only some million and a 
half of the fifteen millions which they number, and most 
of them have no desire to migrate there. They prefer to 
approve in a mild way the departure of other Jews to Pales¬ 
tine, while they themselves remain in the more congenial 
and profitable lands of the gentiles. 

The literature of Judaism began in the third and second 
centuries b.c. Its first manifestation was in the latest books 
of the Old Testament, such as Daniel, Koheleth (Ecclesias¬ 
tes) and the Song of Songs, together with the Apocalypse 
of Enoch and the later apocalypses found among the apoc¬ 
ryphal books. Its next expression was the translation of the 
Hebrew books of the Old Testament into Greek. This enter¬ 
prise was an accommodation to the growing Jewish popula¬ 
tion of Egypt to whom the Hebrew was an unknown tongue, 
and it was fostered by the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ptolemy Phila- 
delphus. The process extended over a period of nearly a 
hundred and fifty years, from 285 to 130 b.c. This translation 
is called the Septuagint, “ the Seventy,” or LXX, from the 
tradition that it was made by seventy Jewish scholars, or 
perhaps that the project was sanctioned by the Egyptian 
Jewish Assembly of seventy members. The different por¬ 
tions of the work show differing degrees of accuracy in 
the translations. Some parts were so poorly done that later 
translations like those of Theodotian and Lysimachus were 

“-198 — 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


substituted for them. The LXX includes not only the 
books of the Old Testament but as well a number of the 
apocryphal books written in Greek and regarded by 
the more liberal Alexandrian Jews as Holy Scripture. 
Among the books of this class are Esdras, the Wisdom of 
Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), the 
rest of Esther, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, the Epistle of Jere¬ 
miah, Susanna, the Song of the Three Holy Children, 16 Bel 
and the Dragon, i Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, and in some 
manuscripts 4 Maccabees. Some of these are known to have 
been written in Hebrew (e.g., Ecclesiasticus), but the cur¬ 
rent version was in Greek. 

The work of scribal commentation upon the law had 
gone on continuously in the schools of the east and in those 
in Palestine, such as Tiberias and Jamnia. In these 
schools the oral law was developed, which was believed 
to contain the teachings of the leading rabbis regarding the 
ancient Mosaic law. This body of comment was not com¬ 
mitted to writing, but was held as the esoteric possession of 
eminent teachers and their pupils. Fresh translations of 
portions of the Old Testament were made, e.g., by Aquila, 
whose work conformed more strictly to the Hebrew text 
than did the Septuagint, which was regarded as the Bible 
of the gentiles. With Rabbi Akiba in the second century 
a.d. began the writing of the oral law to secure its accuracy 
and preservation, and in this period as well the Hebrew 
text of the Old Testament was standardized and the variant 
forms suppressed, an unfortunate process similar to that 
which befell the Koran in a later day. 

16 To follow Dan. 3. 


— I99 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


The plan of the emperor Hadrian in 132 a.d. to build 
a temple to Jupiter on the site of the former temple, in the 
Roman city of Aelia Capitolina where Jerusalem had once 
stood, led to a fresh war with Rome which ended with the 
overthrow of Simon bar Cokeba or Cozeba, the latest of the 
messianic claimants, who affirmed that he was the promised 
“ star out of Jacob.” 17 When this outbreak was suppressed 
in 135 a.d. the rabbinical schools were proscribed for a time, 
and many Jews fled the country to escape Roman persecu¬ 
tion. The anti-foreign reaction that followed brought 
to a close the effort to proselyte non-Jews. The conserva¬ 
tive rabbis increasingly disapproved of the practice, 
and the rapid spread of Christianity in the Graeco- 
Roman world rendered it less and less effective. Since 
that time Judaism has largely ceased to be a missionary 
religion. 

As the hopes of nationalism faded the retreat to the law 
was more and more the order of the day. Of the two 
objects of Jewish devotion — the Temple and the Torah,— 
the Building and the Book — only the latter remained, and 
it elicited an ever increasing loyalty and love. The real 
sanctuary was now the synagogue and the school. The 
temple was a memory and was replaced by repentance and 
good works. The Sanhedrin had disappeared, the Sad- 
ducees and the priesthood were no more. But the ideals 
of Pharisaism, the life of prayer, alms-giving, fasting and 
the study of the Torah continued, and their moral authority 
was greater than ever. The ancient festivals were still ob¬ 
served, the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms were employed 

17 Num. 14:17. 


— 200 — 








Rise and Literature of Judaism 


in the service, and a new ritual was developed in place of 
the ancient temple rubrics. 

By the end of the second century a.d. the new codifica¬ 
tion of the law was well along. In its developed form it 
was called the Mishna, the “ repetition ” and amplification 
of the ancient legal code of the Old Testament. From the 
days of Ezra it had been taking form as an oral tradition of 
comment and interpretation. It was the teaching of the 
rabbis that the law revealed to Moses was both written and 
oral, and the Mishna purported to be the sum of both. 
Under the directing hand of Rabbi Prince Judah the lead¬ 
ing scholar of the age it was brought to the form which it 
held for several centuries. The process of committing the 
Mishna to writing was slow and hesitant. The rabbis dis¬ 
liked the plan of putting it in written form which seemed 
to make it more common and accessible to the untrained. 
But the process went on nevertheless and was completed 
by the sixth century. The commentaries on the Mishna 
that were gradually produced made up the Gamara, and 
the two combined formed the Talmud, the “ learning ” of 
the synagogue and its schools. 

Meantime the debates on the law had gone on for cen¬ 
turies in Jewish schools, both conservative and liberal. Such 
men as Hillel, a scholar from Babylonia, and his grandson 
Gamaliel, the teacher of Saul of Tarsus, were of the liberal 
type. Shammai, a contemporary of Hillel, was of the con¬ 
servative order. Discussions were held continuously over 
the meaning of the law. 

Reports of these discussions were codified in the two 
Talmuds, the Palestinian and the Babylonian. The former 


— 201 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


dates from the early part of the fifth Christian century, and 
the latter from the end of that period. Of the two the 
Babylonian Talmud was much more voluminous and au¬ 
thoritative. It was the final source of appeal on disputed 
points. Other writings of the early Christian age were the 
Jubilees, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the 
Psalms of Solomon, and the Sibylline Oracles. This litera¬ 
ture was not in favor with the rabbis, and in the second 
century was condemned by them, and preserved only among 
Christians. 

By the year 425 a.d. the Jewish schools in Palestine, the 
remnant of Jewish influence in the holy land, died out, and 
by the sixth century those in Babylon had come to their 
eclipse. In other parts of the world the Jews passed through 
various fortunes. Under the Roman emperors their situ¬ 
ation changed with the government. Often there were 
severe restrictions placed upon them, and at other times they 
were protected. In Persia their estate was more tolerable, 
though there were times of persecution for them there. But 
learning and culture declined with the loss of civic rights 
and the still greater dispersion of the race. As they felt 
the hand of oppression and were compelled more and more 
in the lands of the stranger to seek protection by living in the 
restricted ghettos which were both prison and refuge, they 
turned with even greater ardor and devotion to the law and 
the ritual. They developed a system of speculative interpre¬ 
tation of the Scriptures based upon the mystical values of 
numbers, and called the cabala. A great body of literature 
grew out of these manipulations of the science of numbers 
as applied to the Hebrew writings. Such speculations 


— 202 — 




Rise and Literature of Judaism 


greatly influenced some of the learned men of the Middle 
Ages, such as Pico della Mirandola, the friend and counsellor 
of Lorenzo di Medici, who professed that he discovered 
all the Christian doctrines in the Jewish cabala, and 
translated some of that literature into Latin for the use of 
scholars. Another who drank of the same fountain was 
Johann Reuchlin, the first European scholar to introduce 
the study of Hebrew into a university curriculum. 

That the Jewish people have survived the difficult ex¬ 
periences through which they have passed and have pro¬ 
duced the scholars and statesmen who have been the glory 
of their race is one of the marvels of history. No people 
has ever suffered more cruel treatment at the hands of its 
neighbors than they. At different times they have sought 
refuge in almost all the lands to which they could secure 
access, like Spain, France, Italy, Germany and England. 
In every one of these countries they received ungracious 
treatment ranging from such persecutions as they received 
in England, and such espionage and hardship as befell them 
in the ghettos of Russia, Poland and Germany, to the brutal 
expulsion which drove them in multitudes from Spain in 
the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the later distresses 
which they suffered at the hands of the Inquisition. Re¬ 
ligious prejudice and racial peculiarities have combined to 
make them unwelcome and unhappy wherever they have 
gone. They have been the victims of expatriation, ex¬ 
ploitation and outrage in all the lands of their dispersion. 
Naturally they drew together for mutual protection, and 
reacted with hatred and fear against their oppressors, too 
often professors of the Christian religion. The stories of the 


— 203 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


pale and the ghetto are pathetic and accusing to all who 
read them and feel in any manner a racial or creedal in¬ 
volvement in them. In such circumstances it would be in¬ 
credible that they could maintain an unmixed and untainted 
racial stock. Violence and cruelty have too often had their 
way. Intermarriage as well has been constant along the 
margins of Jewish communities, though never approved by 
the rabbis and the heads of Jewish households. 

In spite of all misfortunes, however, this race has mul¬ 
tiplied and taken its place among the forceful and successful 
people of the modern world. The very causes of their mis¬ 
fortunes have likewise been the sources of their strength. 
Their faith grew stronger with oppression. The degree to 
which they have attained separateness has been partly of 
their own choosing, partly due to their religious convictions, 
partly to their social characteristics, and mostly to the un¬ 
happy treatment they have received at the hands of others. 
In America first of all have they found an asylum and an 
opportunity. And here as well as in other lands they have 
produced philanthropists, scholars, artists, journalists and 
public leaders who have been an honor to their race and 
a contribution to the progress of the world. 


— 204 — 





XIII 

OTHER SACRED BOOKS 


The religious literature of the world is very voluminous 
and impressive. Most religions that have attained the level 
of cultural competence have produced writings interpreta¬ 
tive of their chief principles. Nearly all the systems of ethi¬ 
cal and religious teaching that have arisen in the different 
ethnic groups have found expression in hymns, ritual, magi¬ 
cal formulae, priestly instructions and other types of re¬ 
ligious utterance, and these have been gathered into an 
increasing collection of sacred writings. Most ancient be¬ 
liefs created something of the sort, though in some instances 
the material produced was fragmentary and limited and 
did not attain the status of canonical books. 

This was the case in Egypt. As early as the fifth and 
sixth dynasties two and a half millenniums before Christ 
the post-mortem fortunes of the pyramid-building kings 
were deemed of sufficient importance to demand the cover¬ 
ing of tomb walls and galleries with hieroglyphic texts 
which included the ritual of burial, specifications for offer¬ 
ings at the tomb, magical formulae, ritual of worship, 
hymns, fragments of myths, and prayers for the welfare of 
the dead monarch. The care taken to provide the dead with 
the proper credentials for safe passage through the varied 
experiences of the underworld led to the compilation of sev¬ 
eral collections of magical texts and directions, among them 


— 205 — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


“ The Book of Him who is in the Underworld,” the “ Book 
of Portals,” and most important of all, the so-called “ Book 
of the Dead,” which was enlarged from time to time until 
it required a papyrus roll seventy feet in length for its tran¬ 
scription. These and other writings were regarded as classic 
and essential to the welfare of the soul in the future life. 
They were not, however, organized into a canon of re¬ 
ligious instruction. 

The Babylonians had a large body of priestly writings, 
chiefly employed in the effort to avert evil by the proper 
rules of magic and liturgical directions for temple usage. 
The nearest approach they made however to religious books 
was in the two great epics, the Cosmogonic Story, sometimes 
called the Epic of Creation, and the Gilgamish Epic. The 
fortunate survival of fragments of these two poems makes 
clear the fact that they deal with the creation of the world 
by Marduk the god of Babylon, the deluge experiences of 
Utnapishtim, the survivor of the world-flood, and the de¬ 
scent of the goddess Ishtar into Hades. The close relation¬ 
ship of these narratives to the creation and deluge narratives 
of the book of Genesis is familiar to all students of Semitic 
literature. In addition there are numerous litanies, lamenta¬ 
tions over the anger of the gods, penitential psalms and other 
materials of like nature. Yet here again there is no sugges¬ 
tion of a canon of religious books for popular use. 

The earlier poetry of Greece was much of it deeply 
religious in spirit. The two great Homeric epics reveal a 
dignified and reverent attitude toward ethical and religious 
interests which is impressive. In the Iliad and the Odyssey 
alike the gods are pictured as upholders of justice and moral- 


— 206 — 






Other Sacred Books 


ity, though not without striking weaknesses of temper and 
behavior. The same is true of the great dramas of Aeschylus 
and Sophocles. In these writings the lofty sentiments of the 
classic Greek mind came to their best expression. Nor can 
one fail to recognize the truly religious note in the teachings 
of Socrates and Plato. But there was no selected list of 
writings that assumed to speak with authority regarding 
the religious life. There was no canon of sacred literature. 

With the Aryans of India there is found what may be 
regarded as the most ancient writing that attained the 
sanctity of an inspired collection. When these clans en¬ 
tered India from the northwest some millenniums before the 
Christian era they were already possessed of a body of 
hymns addressed to Indra the cloud god, Agni the fire god 
and other nature deities. The Rig-veda the most venerable 
of their collections is dated by scholars somewhere between 
2000 and 1500 b.c. It consists of some 1,030 hymns in more 
than ten thousand verses, and makes a book equal in size 
to the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. Closely associated 
with the Rig-veda in the veneration of the Hindu, though 
not so widely employed, are the Sama-veda, a collection of 
sacred chants for temple usage; the Yajur-veda, a book of 
ritual for sacrifices; and the Atharva-veda, an anthology 
of magical formulae for the avoidance of evil. The word 
“ veda ” means knowledge, and the Vedas have been from 
time immemorial regarded as the completely inspired 
literature of Hinduism. 

Intimately related to the Vedas in sanctity are the 
Upanishads, a body of writings speculative and metaphysical 
in character, professing to be based upon the utterances of 


— 207 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


the Atharva-veda. They are 170 in number, and from them, 
offering as they do such ample opportunities for mystical 
and philosophic meditation, the long line of Indian poets 
from the writer of the Bhagavad Gita to Tagore have drawn 
their inspiration. From this literature were selected the 
mantras or sacred texts for popular instruction, and upon it 
were founded the sutras, or rules and aphorisms to be stored 
in the minds of the devout. In the fullest sense the Vedas 
and the Upanishads are believed to be inspired. The Brah¬ 
mins have ever taught that the truths uttered in these holy 
books were revealed to ancient seers. At the same time it 
must be understood that the theories of inspiration varied 
almost as much among the Hindu sages as among the He¬ 
brews, the Jews and the Christians. Some of them affirmed 
that the Vedas were eternal and constituted a unique and 
unapproachable body of divine words. Others inclined to 
the opinion that inspiration never really ceased and that the 
later classics shared this quality. Between these two ex¬ 
tremes there is found the usual orthodox view that the 
Vedas and the Upanishads possess the quality of divine in¬ 
spiration in a manner not to be found in other writings. 
They seem to express the hopes and speculations of the early 
Brahmins, sunk in those vast and austere conceptions of life 
which by the vanished stream of the Saraswati first allured 
the human soul. 

The most widely known and popular of the religious 
books of India is the Bhagavad Gita, the “ divine song,” 
which Krishna sang to the warrior Arjuna before the great 
battle of Kurukshetra. In a very real sense it is the gospel of 
India, the story of the union of the soul with God. Of it an 


— 208- 





Other Sacred Books 


informed writer, Professor Howells, says: “ It is a living book, 
devoutly read and studied by tens of thousands of Hindus 
throughout the length and breadth of India. All men of 
light and leading in India are thoroughly familiar with its 
contents, and no man of culture, whether that culture be na¬ 
tive or foreign and whether he lives in village, town or city, 
neglects the study of it.” * Allowing for possible exaggera¬ 
tion in this statement, it is at least an impressive comment 
upon the fundamentally religious character of the Hindus, 
and is in sufficient contrast with popular acquaintance with 
the Bible among Christians. Nor must one forget the 
Ramayana, the epic of Rama and Sita, written by Tulsi Das 
about 1600 a.d., in which Rama is pictured as the complete in¬ 
carnation of the divine; or the Homeric character of the 
Mahabharata, with its stories of the conflicts in which the 
gods have their part, and in which Krishna is the hero. 

Closely related to the Aryan Indians were the ancient 
Iranians, among whom appeared one of the earliest pro¬ 
phetic reformers of Asia, Zoroaster. His date has been vari¬ 
ously placed from 1000 to 650 b.c. A small group of hymns 
was left by this teacher, and the Gathas, a series of metrical 
texts, probably also came from the founder of the new 
faith, who went about as a wanderer and reformer among 
his people. The sacred scriptures which were gathered 
about these fragments and were augmented by prophetic 
utterances, liturgy and ceremonial, hymns, cosmogonic 
myth and tradition, were gradually assembled in a collection 
known as the Avesta. The date of this body of writings is 
assumed to be about 240 a.d. According to the tradition of 

* The Soul of India. 


— 209 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the Parsees, the modern representatives of the Zoroastrian 
faith, the Avesta formerly contained twenty-one books. Of 
these but one now survives. It consists of five parts: a 
liturgy, the rules of clean and unclean, hymns of various age 
and merit, and a collection of prayers for daily use. The 
Gathas are the nucleus of the first of these sections. The di¬ 
vine origin, character and inspiration of Zoroaster were con¬ 
fidently affirmed by his followers. The divine nature of 
the literature which bears his name is not questioned by the 
faithful. Few of the Parsees are able to read the classic Zend 
language in which the Avesta is written. But they repeat, 
as an act of merit, the sacred Gathas whose meaning they 
may not know. Most of the essentials of that religion which 
proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the ever living Lord of light, 
and which was professed by the great Cyrus and his succes¬ 
sors, have passed away. The creed of the modern Parsee is 
a recognition of the obligation to cultivate “ good thoughts, 
good words and good deeds.” The venerable figure of the 
reformer himself has all but vanished, and the formula: 
“ Thus saith Zarathustra,” has but a phantom of meaning. 

Perhaps the most conspicuous of the non-Christian 
faiths, the earliest to transcend the limits of a race and be¬ 
come international in its influence, is Buddhism. Like 
Christianity and Mohammedanism it has always been a mis¬ 
sionary religion, having been carried by zealous representa¬ 
tives from its original home in India to Ceylon, Burmah, 
Siam, China, Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, and in lesser degree 
to other parts of Asia. The founder of Buddhism was 
Siddhartha, or Gautama, a member of the Sakiya clan, born 
at Kapilavastu, the chief town of that clan, on what is now 


— 210 — 



Other Sacred Books 


the border between British India and Nepal, about 560 b.c. 
Renouncing family and comfort for the life of a wanderer 
and devotee, he endeavored for seven years by the usual 
practices of the mendicant holy men to attain satisfaction of 
soul, but in vain. At the age of thirty-six, sitting under a tree 
at Buddh Gaya, he came upon the great secret, the “ illu¬ 
mination ” in virtue of which he became henceforth the 
Buddha, the “ enlightened” At Sarnath a few miles from 
Benares are shown the remains of the deer park in which 
he taught his followers. He spent more than forty years 
journeying from place to place, instructing the increasing 
numbers of his disciples, and organizing the order that was 
to interpret his “ way of deliverance ” to the world. He died 
at Kusinara, about 480 b.c., among his friends and devoted 
adherents, and his ashes were divided among the families 
who claimed the right to share the honor. 

The teachings of the Buddha were treasured by his dis¬ 
ciples, transmitted orally, and finally committed to writing 
in the early portion of the first century b.c. They are con¬ 
tained in a triple collection known as the Tripitika, or 
“ Three Baskets.” They are written in the Pali language, a 
dialect derived from the Sanskrit, and make a body of lit¬ 
erature about twice the size of the Bible. The three Pitikas 
are called respectively the Vinaya Pitika, the Suta Pitika, 
and the Abhidhamma Pitika. The first is a body of ritual 
and rules for the early Buddhist monastic communities, and 
includes the commission given by the Master to his friends 
to go out and preach his message to mankind. The second 
is composed of five Nikayas or “ collections,” constituting a 
large number of discourses and dialogues, words of the 


— 211 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


Buddha and expositions of Buddhist doctrine. These sus¬ 
tain to the rest of the literature much the same relation as 
do the Gospels to the remainder of the New Testament. 
The last of these Nikayas consists of fifteen sections, and in¬ 
cludes the Dhammapada or Path of the Law, in 423 verses; 
the Udinas, 82 short lyrics, ecstatic utterances, or “ songs of 
exultation,” supposed to have been uttered by the Buddha 
at important crises of his experience; the Sutta Nipata, 70 
lyrics on the secret of peace; the Gathas, psalms of the 
brethren and sisters of the order; the Jatakas, the most popu¬ 
lar of Buddhist literature, a collection of birth stories, folk¬ 
lore and tradition, recounting the previous lives of the 
Buddha and the merit he acquired by kindness to men and 
animals. The third is the philosophical elaboration of 
Buddhism in terms of psychology and ethics. Of these 
documents the Dhammapada gives the most intelligible 
statement of the Buddha, the Law and the Order, the three 
supreme objects of reverence celebrated in the daily confes¬ 
sion or “ Refuge,” which is recited by every pious Buddhist. 

These Pali books constitute the classic canon of this re¬ 
ligion. In them are found, many times and variously re¬ 
peated, the essentials of Gautama’s teaching: The Four 
Noble Truths — life is suffering; suffering is the result of 
desire; cessation of desire ends anxiety and suffering; and 
this is attained by following the instructions of the Master. 
These instructions are given in the Noble Eight-fold Path. 
This includes right belief, aspiration, speech, action, liveli¬ 
hood, effort, mindfulness and contemplation. Each of these 
is of course properly defined in the sources. A high level of 
morality was inculcated, indicated in the Five General Com- 


— 212 — 




Other Sacred Books 


mandments, prohibiting the taking of life, theft, adultery, 
untruth, and the use of intoxicants. To these were added 
five more prohibitions for the members of the monastic 
brotherhood — eating at forbidden times, worldly amuse¬ 
ments, scents and ornaments, use of a luxurious bed, and 
taking silver or gold. 

To this Pali Canon, which is now preserved in the palm- 
leaf manuscripts of Burmah, Ceylon and Siam,* many 
other books have been added, including a Sanskrit canon, 
which was chiefly a revision of the classic books in the inter¬ 
ests of the Mahayana or liberal movement of the north, and 
the literature of translation and expansion which has taken 
form in the various lands to which Buddhism was taken 
from India its original home. In India it has all but 
completely disappeared. The Pitikas are revered by all 
Buddhists, though few of them have access to the original 
Pali classics. Yet they are not regarded as inspired in the 
measure claimed for the sacred books of several of the other 
faiths. They have by no means the same position in 
Buddhism that the Vedas have in Hinduism, the Koran in 
Islam, or the Bible in the Christian church. Curiously 
enough, although a large proportion of the followers of the 
Buddhist religion regard the Buddha himself as a god and 
adore his innumerable statues with idolatrous reverence, 
his words are held authoritative only in the sense in which 
those of Euclid or Plato are regarded by the learned of all 
the centuries; they have not the sanctity of the utterances of 


* At Mandalay there is a temple in whose court the canonical sayings 
are inscribed on a multitude of small tablets, each covered with a roof or coping, 
and set like shrines in rows. 


— 213 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


the vishis to the Hindus, Mohammed to the Moslems, Moses 
to the Jews, or Jesus and the apostles to Christians. In 
Buddhism the Founder and the Order have proved much 
more significant than the Law. 

Much the same is true of the canonical books of the 
Chinese. For centuries that run far back into antiquity cer¬ 
tain documents have been received as classic and regulative 
for public and private conduct. It may be said with empha¬ 
sis that the political and religious life of China has been 
based upon the five canonical books, which grew out of the 
life and service of Confucius, and were by him transmitted 
to the Chinese people. They are not regarded as inspired; 
they make no claim to have been revealed by any deity. But 
so great is the veneration of the people of that land for all 
that is ancient and so conspicuous is the place which Con¬ 
fucius holds in their regard that these volumes lack little of 
the sanction which in other lands attaches to the most au¬ 
thentic scripture. 

Probably none of the great teachers who have held the 
position of supreme veneration in the thought of their people 
has ever exercised so profound and widespread an influence 
as Confucius. When one takes into account the enormous 
numbers of the Chinese and the unnumbered centuries in 
which they have flourished in that far-extended region 
where they still live, and further recalls the fact that 
through twenty-five of these centuries and by practically all 
this race one name has held the pre-eminent place, it is not 
to be doubted that the influence of this great teacher has 
carried further than that of any other man who has spoken 
on the basic themes of human life. 


— 214 — 




Other Sacred Books 


Confucius, or K’ung-futze, i.e., “Master K’ung,” was 
born in the small state of Lu in what is now the province of 
Shantung, in 551 b.c. Most of his life was spent in the work 
of teaching, though at times he was called upon to serve as 
an official. He was possessed of an extraordinary reverence 
for antiquity. As Dante looked back to the Roman empire 
as the ideal of human government, so Confucius was filled 
with reverence for the state with its immemorial history, its 
order and its glory. In the remote past lay the golden age. 
To restore customs and sanctions that seemed in danger of 
neglect was his ambition. He counted himself in no sense a 
founder of a new system of ethics, much less of a new re¬ 
ligion. Indeed he expressly disclaimed any concern for re¬ 
ligious questions, and advised his students and friends to 
leave outside the circle of their intellectual interests all mat¬ 
ters of speculative and transcendental nature. 

The five books which Confucius collected out of the 
wisdom of the past, and which became the canonical litera¬ 
ture of the Chinese people, are the Shu-king or book of his¬ 
torical documents; the Shi-king or book of odes; the Yi-king 
or book of changes or permutations, a manual of divination; 
the Hsiao-king or book of filial piety, and the Li-ki or book 
of rites. In addition there are the four books of classics, 
which include the Lung-yu, the conversations of Confucius, 
sometimes called the Confucian Analects; the Ta-hioh or 
the Great Teaching; the Chang-yung or Doctrine of the 
Mean; and the Meng-tsze, the instructions of the philoso¬ 
pher Mencius (372-289 b.c.). The latter was the greatest 
of the successors of Confucius. These books are all more or 
less associated with the name of China’s revered sage and 


— 215- 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


teacher. The emperor Shi-huang-ti (246-210 b.c.), who 
thought the veneration for the past inculcated in these classics 
was a danger to the state, made an effort to destroy them. 
But the success of this attempt was only partial, and they 
came to a more exalted place in popular regard in conse¬ 
quence. Since that time they have possessed full canonical 
character and authority. 

Mention has already been made of the sacred book of 
Judaism, the Talmud. It is of course based upon the teach¬ 
ings of the Old Testament, and embodies the comments and 
traditions of the scribes from the third Christian century to 
the sixth. It is in two parts, the Mishna, which is the written 
form of the scribal elaborations of the Torah, preserved 
through the earlier centuries in oral form, and the Gamara, 
containing the later formulation of Jewish theory and tradi¬ 
tion as they had taken form in the schools of Palestine and 
Babylonia. 

Outside of the Bible the most impressive example of a 
body of religious literature regarded by its possessors as au¬ 
thoritative, inspired, canonical, is the Koran, the scripture 
of the Mohammedan world. It was produced in a period 
much later than any of the sacred books thus far named, with 
the exception of the Talmud, which in its completed form 
was only slightly older. The story of the rise of Islam is 
romantic. Mohammed was a merchant of Mecca who 
became possessed of a passion for the emancipation of the 
Arab race from the superstitions of its idolatrous past. He 
was acquainted to a limited extent with the rather low types 
of Jewish and Christian belief and practice in the Arabian 
cities. From these sources he had gained a certain familiar- 


— 216 — 





Other Sacred Books 


ity with some of the biblical narratives. As the result of con¬ 
troversy with his own clan, the Koriesh, growing out of his 
claim to religious inspiration and leadership, he was com¬ 
pelled to save himself by flight from Mecca to Medina. This 
was in 622 a.d., the year which became from that event the 
beginning of the Mohammedan era. The career of con¬ 
quest upon which the prophet and his followers embarked 
rapidly laid the entire Levant at their feet and even threat¬ 
ened Europe. 

In the course of his life as a prophet and defender of the 
faith in one God, Mohammed wrote a considerable number 
of prayers, directions to his followers, commentations upon 
incidents in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and other 
utterances, which were gathered into a collection, and today 
constitute the classic literature of Islam. They are in the 
form of suras or chapters, and collectively are called the 
Koran, or the “ reading.” They are most diffusive and 
various. They deal with all manner of matters, historical, 
theological, traditional, legendary and ritualistic. They are 
all at the level of one mind, and were written within a com¬ 
paratively brief period. Yet they are the basis of all the 
theology, ethics, jurisprudence, science and ritual of Moham¬ 
medanism. The Koran is the textbook in every Moham¬ 
medan school. It is believed by conforming members of the 
community of Islam to be inspired as the work of the proph¬ 
et’s hand and brain, but also to be the utterance of the 
divine wisdom, of which the prophet was made the oracle 
and vehicle to mankind. Perhaps the theory of verbal and 
plenary inspiration was never carried to greater lengths than 
in the Mohammedan view of the Koran. To the book is 


— 217 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


ascribed every possible perfection of form and spirit. The 
diligence with which it is studied and the zeal with which its 
teachings are propagated are among the most astonishing 
features of Islam. Doubtless the glamor of the prophet’s 
own career is thrown over it in the thought of the “ true be¬ 
lievers,” as Mohammedans call themselves. Nor can any fair 
estimate of the invaluable services of the prophet to his people 
fail to yield a high meed of praise to the entire movement 
for the reform of the Arabs. However, one needs this 
background of romantic achievement to relieve the feeling of 
disillusionment which results from the reading of the arid 
and trivial pages which make up no small part of the Koran. 
The man and the movement remain greater than the litera¬ 
ture they produced. 

These are examples of the books which for various rea¬ 
sons have become classic and venerable among the chief 
religious groups of the non-Christian world. Others, like 
the Granth, the sacred volume of the Sikhs, and the re¬ 
vered and secret Scriptures of the Druses of the Lebanon 
are of interest to the student of religion. No one of 
them is without its distinct merits. Each gathers to itself 
traditions of great souls who have wrought nobly in behalf 
of their people. In all of them can be discerned something 
of the breath of the divine which is assurance that God has 
never left himself without witness among any people. To 
the men who have poured their hearts into these hymns of 
the faith and these directions for the holy life one must ac¬ 
cord honor and gratitude. Yet the more they are studied 
and the more their writings are compared with those of our 
Bible the more are we impressed with the unique character 


— 218 — 





Other Sacred Books 


of the Scriptures which have issued from the hands of He¬ 
brew and Christian prophets and which find their highest 
levels in the utterances of our Lord. One need not dispraise 
the other holy writings to perceive the greatness of our own. 
In fact, the more attention is given to the world literatures of 
religion, the more impressive becomes the character of the 
Bible. They are the high and purposeful aspirations of eth¬ 
nic teachers who saw the truth as they were able and made it 
known to their people. But in the Bible there is a universal 
note nowhere else discovered. It is proving itself to be the 
message of God to the race. The Christianity of which it is 
the exponent is winning its way slowly but surely in the 
lands of the non-Christian world. Their bibles are for par¬ 
ticular peoples and limited areas. The Bible is for every age 
and all mankind. 


-219- 




XIV 

THE MAKING OF 
THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The friends of Jesus were not interested in the writing 
of books. They were not writers, they were preachers. The 
Master himself was not a writer. He left no document from 
his own hand. The first disciples were too busy with the 
new problems and activities of the Christian society to give 
thought to the making of records. 

At the beginning and for some time they were all Jews. 
The Master himself was a Jew, and all his earliest friends 
were of that race. Most of them lived in the vicinity of 
Jerusalem. It was only slowly that the news about the re¬ 
cently formed movement made its way into wider circles. 
For this reason most of the writers of the first Christian 
documents were Jews. 

Even when the word was taken into Samaria, it was 
not regarded as a departure from the easily formed habit 
of thinking of the good tidings regarding Jesus as an essen¬ 
tially Jewish possession. The Samaritans were considered 
as a part of the ancient people of Jahveh, though on a dis¬ 
tinctly lower plane of religious and social privilege. Nor 
did the acceptance of the gospel by proselytes like the Ethio¬ 
pian official 1 invade the field of Jewish privilege, because in 

1 Acts 8. 


— 220 — 


The Making of the New Testament 


becoming an adherent of Judaism such a man had pro¬ 
claimed his break with his former non-Jewish life. 

None of this early activity which carried the movement 
into Judea, Samaria and Galilee, required written docu¬ 
ments. There seems to have been no literary impulse in the 
church for years. There was no need for it. The believers 
were closely associated. The most distant of them could be 
reached in a few hours with instructions from their leaders. 
The story of Jesus, which was the substance of their preach¬ 
ing, was known to all. There was no need to write it down. 
It was the extension of the good news into non-Jewish 
communities which widened the field of early Christian 
operations, and gradually called for the use of writing. 
Particularly was it the ministry of the Apostle Paul which 
awakened Christians to the importance and value of written 
communications. 

To one who opens the New Testament without previ¬ 
ous reflection upon the manner in which it took form, it 
seems surprising to be told that the Gospels, the books with 
which it begins, were by no means the earliest of its writings. 
Would it not seem natural that they should be ? Yet a care¬ 
ful reading of the collection makes it apparent that such was 
not the case. Why should the books have been arranged on 
a plan which is so at variance with our modern method of 
setting things in something like chronological sequence? 
The answer is that the order of the books was probably 
no important consideration to the men who gathered them 
into a collection. They were not sensitive to the spirit of 
historical arrangement, which makes people desire to set 
documents in the sequence of their dates. Probably they 


— 221 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


were far more impressed by die reladve value of the Gos¬ 
pels as the chief material of the collection, and so they were 
placed first. 

It would be a valuable aid to the student if he could have 
a New Testament arranged on this plan of chronological 
succession. And now that the work of biblical criticism has 
so far advanced that the dates of practically all the books have 
been determined, one can use to advantage such works as 
Moffatt’s “ Historical New Testament,” Lindsay’s “ Chrono¬ 
logical New Testament,” Robertson’s “Student’s Chrono¬ 
logical New Testament,” or the common speech version 
known as the “ Twentieth Century New Testament.” 

Apparently the earliest writing in the New Testament is 
the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. Twenty years had 
passed since the end of Jesus’ ministry. The Christian so¬ 
ciety had extended its membership from Jerusalem to 
Antioch, and from Antioch to Asia Minor and Europe. 
The chief worker in this extension of the movement was 
Paul. After a considerable period of unrecorded preaching 
in his own home country, he had been called to Antioch, 
and from there had gone out with Barnabas and Mark on a 
mission to Cyprus and the northern mainland. Later a sec¬ 
ond journey was made in company with Silas and others, 
in the course of which the apostle crossed to Macedonia, and 
visited the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens, 
going on presently to Corinth. 

From that city he wrote this letter, on the arrival of 
Timothy with good news regarding the Thessalonians. In 
it he expresses his joy at their constancy, cautions them to 
avoid immoral and indolent behavior, and tells them that 


— 222 — 





The Making of the New Testament 


they need not fear that their loved ones who have recently 
died have lost out in the event of the Lord’s return, which 
was eagerly expected. Soon after Paul sent a second letter 
to the same church, telling its nervous and excitable mem¬ 
bers not to think of the day of the Lord as immediately at 
hand, but to maintain calmness and a worthy deportment. 

The Epistle to the Galatians was written to the churches 
in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, which 
Paul founded on his first missionary tour. It was a power¬ 
ful protest against the doctrines of Jewish teachers who 
were attempting to persuade the Christians of those towns 
to add the familiar forms of Jewish legal observance, 
such as circumcision, to their program of Christian life. 
It is the most intense and personal of all the apostle’s 
writings. 

Paul had already written one letter to the church at 
Corinth when our First Epistle to the Corinthians was sent 
by him from Ephesus. He had learned of factious and 
questionable conduct in the church, and had received a let¬ 
ter from some of the members asking a number of questions. 
The Epistle rebukes their divisions, and gives instructions on 
many matters of importance such as marriage, the Lord’s 
Supper, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection. 

Later on Paul heard that conditions at Corinth were 
worse than ever. His authority was defied, and evil conduct 
increased. He sent a third letter, probably to be identified 
with the last four chapters of 2 Corinthians. The tone 
of this document is very- severe. In deep anxiety as to its 
effect the apostle waited at Ephesus for a time, and at 
length journeyed to Troas, and on to Macedonia before he 


— 223 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


met Titus and learned that his letter had resulted in im¬ 
provement in the morale of the church. He thereupon 
wrote a fourth epistle, perhaps the first nine chapters of 2 
Corinthians, expressing his satisfaction at what he had 
heard, and exhorting them to faithfulness, and particularly 
to generous contributions to the poor members of the church 
in Jerusalem, for whose benefit he was gathering offerings 
from all the congregations he visited. 

When Paul had finished his work in the familiar re¬ 
gions of Asia Minor and Greece, he planned to go further 
into that western world to which he had made his first ap¬ 
proach at the time of his vision of “the man of Macedo¬ 
nia.” 2 He would go to Rome, the capital of the world, 
and then on to Spain. He waited only to complete the 
offering for the Jerusalem church. In the meantime he 
wrote the Epistle to the Romans, perhaps as a general docu¬ 
ment of instructions to the churches, telling of his plans, 
and outlining his great thesis of justification by faith. To 
this Epistle there seems to have been attached at some later 
time a brief letter of Paul’s to the church at Ephesus, 3 recom¬ 
mending Phoebe of Cenchrea and conveying his best wishes 
to many of the Ephesian brethren. 

The journey of Paul to Jerusalem to carry up the offer¬ 
ings of his western churches resulted in his arrest, imprison¬ 
ment for two years at Caesarea, and transportation as a 
prisoner to Rome. From his place of confinement in that 
city he seems to have sent four letters: To the good friends 
at Philippi, who had been so thoughtful of his comfort he 
wrote to express his gratitude. To Philemon, a friend at 

2 Acts 16:9; 3 Rom. 16. 


— 224 — 





The Making of the New Testament 


Colosse, whose slave Onesimus had escaped and found 
refuge with the apostle, he wrote in affectionate terms, send¬ 
ing back the refugee and commending him to the regard of 
his master as a Christian. To the church in Colosse he sent 
a message of admonition regarding certain questionable 
teachings to which they had given credence. And to 
the neighboring church at Laodicea he also sent an epistle 
by the hand of the same messenger. It is possible that our 
Epistle to the Ephesians is this otherwise unknown docu¬ 
ment. 

It seems difficult to realize that with these letters the 
words of the great apostle closed. No phase of early Chris¬ 
tianity is more pathetic than the abrupt frustration of all 
Paul’s plans for further evangelism. So far as it is possible 
to judge from the evidence presented by the New Testa¬ 
ment, the writing and the life of Jesus’ first and greatest in¬ 
terpreter ceased with his Roman imprisonment. Probably, 
by this time, martyrdom had ended the life of the Apostle 
Peter as well. 

No one of the Gospels had as yet come into being. But 
there was a man who, as a youth, had known the members 
of the Jerusalem church, where his mother lived, had been 
the companion of Paul on a part of his first missionary tour, 
and had acted as Peter’s helper in later years, perhaps at 
Rome. This was John Mark, the son of Mary of Jerusalem. 
Sometime after Peter’s death, and before the fall of Jeru¬ 
salem, he seems to have written down the story of Jesus’ 
life as his master, Peter, was accustomed to tell it. The 
Gospel of Mark is a brief, vivid narrative, emphasizing the 
power of the Lord in miracle and ministry. It was well 


— 225 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


adapted to convey to its readers a suitable impression of the 
character of the Master. 

The fall of Jerusalem was an event of tremendous sig¬ 
nificance to the Jewish people. It appeared to put the seal of 
condemnation upon their conduct. A part of that conduct 
had been the rejection of Jesus. At first and partly in con¬ 
sequence of that rejection, he had seemed to fail. Now the 
nation itself had fallen, and Jesus’ followers were multiply¬ 
ing everywhere. A writer of the period, convinced that 
Jesus had really brought to its consummation the experience 
of the nation, gathered the materials for another memoir. 
It is based on several sources: The work of Mark, a collection 
of the teachings of Jesus attributed to the Apostle Matthew, 
and other materials. The book thus produced came to be 
known as the Gospel of Matthew. In it the person and mes¬ 
sage of our Lord as the fulfillment of Hebrew hopes for 
the kingdom of God are set forth. It is in an important 
sense the Gospel of the Jewish people. 

So far as we know the entire group of New Testament 
writers was Jewish, with one exception. That was Luke, the 
friend of Paul. He was a Greek and a physician. His ac¬ 
quaintance with the apostle brought him into contact with 
the leaders and scenes of early Christian history. The story 
of the greatest life ever lived was being told in many ways. 
Oral narratives and fragments of written memorabilia were 
floating about. For the benefit of a friend, Theophilus, 
Luke wrote with painstaking care a record of Jesus’ acts and 
sayings. He brought to his work the broad sympathies of a 
cosmopolitan. His narrative is the Gospel of humanity, of 
brotherhood, of womanhood, childhood and Christian song. 


226 — 





The Making of the New Testament 


It was the Gospel for the Greek world of culture and hu¬ 
manitarian interest * 

From the same writer there came also the book of Acts, 
a brief account of some of the events which marked the 
growth of the Christian community from the close of Jesus’ 
ministry to the end of Paul’s career. As the friend of the 
great apostle, Luke had personal knowledge of much of the 
narrative; from Paul he doubtless learned other portions; and 
the remainder could easily be secured during his residence in 
Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Antioch. This book supplies most 
of the information we have concerning the early days of 
the church in Jerusalem and the ministry of Peter, and 
puts an interpreting background behind the epistles of 
Paul. 

The first generation of Christians, including Paul, 
counted much upon the protection of the Roman empire 
against its persecutors. It was therefore a bitter disap¬ 
pointment when that empire itself turned persecutor, in the 
days of Nero and later under Domitian. The martyrdoms 
of those periods thrust the iron deep into the souls of the 
disciples. They were called upon to adore the image of the 
emperor, or suffer the horrors of the stake and the arena. 
This is the situation which is made evident in the book of 
Revelation. Its author was a Christian teacher named John, 
probably of Ephesus. He had suffered banishment, and 
perhaps torture for the sake of the faith. To encourage his 
fellow-believers he wrote a series of letters to seven of the 

* The fact that the first three Gospels present much the same aspect of the 
life of Jesus has suggested the name "Synoptic” as an appropriate designation for 
them. 


— 227 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


churches of that vicinity, and in the figurative language of 
Jewish apocalypse he added a vehement denunciation of the 
Roman empire and its head. The Christ who had gone 
about in mild friendliness and sympathy was soon to return 
as the Lord of the world, to take vengeance on his foes and 
establish his kingdom in the earth. This Christian apoca¬ 
lypse must have been of great value in maintaining the 
courage of the church in those difficult times. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews was probably written to 
the church at Rome by someone unknown to us, but 
familiar with the dangers that menaced that group. The 
Christians there had endured bitter persecution. Now there 
was danger that the lengthening time, the delay in the 
realization of the Lord’s return, the appeal of the more 
spectacular Jewish services of religion, and the death of 
their leaders, would lead to apathy and even apostasy. The 
epistle is a plea for loyalty to the gospel as in every way 
superior to the Jewish institution, and the means of direct 
access to God through the redemptive ministry of Jesus, 
the great High Priest. 

Another document closely connected with Rome is the 
First Epistle of Peter, written by a Christian leader in the 
capital to the disciples of Jesus in Asia Minor, encouraging 
them in the difficulties they were facing. It was probably 
sent out during the days of the Domitian persecution, and 
the writer’s reference to Rome as “Babylon” reveals the 
sentiment of detestation for Roman tyranny which had per¬ 
meated the church. 

In the Epistle of James, there is given an example of 
the sort of Christian exhortations of which there must have 


— 228 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


been great numbers in the first two centuries. It is a work 
of practical counsel. It has been thought that the author 
was a brother of Jesus, but this tradition is based upon 
nothing in the writing itself. 

In many respects the most impressive book in the New 
Testament is the Gospel of John. It is less an attempt to 
narrate the events in the life of Jesus than to interpret that 
life as a whole, and mediate the message of the gospel to a 
world which had little use for Jewish forms of speech such 
as filled much of the earlier Christian writings. This Gospel 
probably took form early in the second century, and it may 
owe its origin to that John the Elder, of Ephesus, of whom 
tradition had much to say. The difficulties that confront 
the view that it was written by a personal follower of Jesus 
are apparent, though the expressions in the epilogue indicate 
that it was early regarded as the work of the disciple whom 
Jesus loved. It is the Gospel of the incarnation. Professor 
Goodspeed, in his Story of the New Testament, says: 
“ Its great ideas of revelation, life, love, truth and freedom, 
its doctrine of the spirit as ever guiding the Christian con¬ 
sciousness into larger vision and achievement, and its in¬ 
sistence upon Jesus as the supreme revelation of God and the 
source of spiritual life, have given it unique and permanent 
religious worth.” 

The three Epistles of John probably came from the same 
hand. The First Epistle was in all likelihood a circular 
letter sent to the churches of the Asian district, emphasizing 
the great ideas of the earlier and longer work, particularly 
the reality of Jesus’ human life, and the necessity of conform¬ 
ing to his commands. The two shorter epistles may have 


— 229 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


been personal messages to friends and comrades in the faith, 
to whom the more general writing was sent. 

The Epistles to Timothy and Titus appear to be late 
directions regarding church organization and efficiency. It 
is not unlikely that they are based upon short and genuine 
epistles of Paul, some portion of whose words have sur¬ 
vived in these admirable churchly counsels. But the Pauline 
note is almost wholly wanting. 

A still later fragment of early Christian writing is 
found in the Epistle of Jude. It was a stinging rebuke to 
scandalous thinking and conduct in the churches, and draws 
much of its symbolism from the lurid pages of Jewish 
apocalyptic, like the book of Enoch. Some time afterward 
another writer made use of much of this document in 
probably the last book of the New Testament, the Second 
Epistle of Peter, another example of that large body of 
early Christian literature which grew up around the name 
of that apostle. 

Already there was a rapidly growing body of writings 
bearing the names of apostolic men, and it was the task 
of later years to gather into a collection those books which 
were thought worthy of that honor and to exclude all 
others. But in that recognized group or canon these twenty- 
seven books gradually secured their place and became the 
Christian Scriptures as we now have them. The process of 
forming a collection of Christian writings which should 
serve for the churches the same purpose as the Hebrew 
canon for the synagogue was so gradual, and in a manner so 
unconscious, that no definite account of it is possible. 

The Hebrew Scriptures which we now call the Old 


— 230 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


Testament formed the acknowledged sacred writings of the 
first Christian communities. It is probable that these Scrip¬ 
tures even included the apocryphal books. Because of the 
fact that most of the first generation of the followers of 
Jesus were Jews, the classic books of the Hebrew race, gen¬ 
erally used in the Greek version called the Septuagint, or 
LXX, were to them inspired and authoritative. They 
searched them for hints of the messianic hope. The book 
of Psalms was their hymn book. They needed no other 
holy books in the beginning of the movement. 

But when their own literature began to take form and 
multiply, it was inevitable that they should face the problem 
as to the kind of writings suitable for reading in the public 
worship. This was an entirely simple and practical ques¬ 
tion, and did not at first involve the broader inquiry as to 
the canonical value of such books. None the less, those 
writings which gained recognition in the churches as profit¬ 
able for use in the worship held the priority as candidates 
for any subsequent inclusion in a reserved and canonized 
group. 

Aside from the Old Testament, which was employed in 
the Septuagint translation, those churches which received 
letters from men of apostolic standing would be sure to 
make use of them in worship. Epistles like those of Paul to 
the Thessalonians, Galatians and Philippians would be held 
in high esteem by those congregations and preserved for 
frequent use in the public service. In like manner such 
epistles as the ones to the churches in Colosse and Lao- 
dicea, which Paul instructed their recipients to exchange, 
would certainly be preserved in copies by Both groups, and 


— 231 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


employed as of lectional value. Hardly less important were 
the circular letters, like Romans, i Peter and perhaps 
Ephesians. These also would find a place in the list of 
writings held sacred by the churches. But by the Chris¬ 
tian communities at large the Epistles did not come into 
general esteem until after the Gospels were recognized as 
in some sense authoritative. 

The first reference to a body of books used for reading 
in the public worship is found in the writings of Justin 
Martyr (died 165 a.d.), who speaks of the three Gospels 
(the Synoptic group) along with the Prophets of the Old 
Testament as having this rank. Soon afterward Tatian, a 
disciple of Justin’s, prepared a composite narrative of the 
life of Jesus for the use of the church at Edessa. This was 
woven together out of the four Gospels, and was called the 
Diatessaron, or narrative “ according to the Four.” 

The list of books named by Marcion (about 140 a.d.) 
does not throw light on church usage, for he had a special 
purpose in directing attention to the teaching of Paul, which 
he thought was falling into neglect. His canon consisted 
of a modified Gospel of Luke, and ten epistles of Paul, the 
pastoral epistles being excluded. Here for the first time 
epistles took rank with the Gospel records. 

The thirty years from Justin Martyr to Irenaeus of 
Lyons (177-202 a.d.) witnessed a rapid but unrecorded 
growth of opinion regarding the right of most of our present 
New Testament books to a recognized place in a canon of 
Scripture. In the writings of the latter the Epistles take 
rank with the Gospels (though Hebrews is not mentioned), 
and the entire list is lifted from casual use by the churches 


— 232 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


to the plane of authoritative Scripture. It is not known who 
was responsible for this development. Perhaps Irenaeus 
himself. At any rate, the dangers to apostolic teaching from 
the inroad of heretical, particularly gnostic, opinion, ren¬ 
dered it necessary to possess some standard of appeal in a 
body of books vested with apostolic character. 

Passing over Marcion’s partial and biased list, the earliest 
known canon of New Testament writings is found in the 
Muratorian Fragment. In 1740 an Italian scholar named 
Muratori found in the Ambrosian library at Milan, in a 
monk’s notebook dating from the seventh or eighth cen¬ 
tury, a mutilated extract of a list of New Testament books 
made at Rome before the close of the second century. The 
fragment starts in the middle of a sentence, referring to 
Peter’s connection with the second Gospel, and proceeds 
to name Luke as the third Gospel and John as the fourth. 
Presumably it dealt with all four of the evangelists as we 
have them. It speaks of Acts as the work of Luke. It 
mentions thirteen epistles of Paul, thus including the pas¬ 
toral epistles, but excluding Hebrews. It recognizes Jude, 
two epistles of John, and the book of Revelation. It in¬ 
cludes also the Wisdom of Solomon and the Apocalypse of 
Peter, though with reserve in the case of the latter. 
This document thus includes most of our New Testament 
books; but it is noticeable that Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, 
James and one of the epistles of John are not named. The 
Shepherd of Hermas is referred to as profitable reading. 

At the opening of the third century there is an anony¬ 
mous writing which has been attributed by some to Victor 
of Rome (200-230 a.d.). Reference is made in it to the 


— 233 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


three divisions of Scripture: Prophetic writings — the proph¬ 
ets of the Old Testament, the Apocalypse, and Hermas; 
the Gospels; and the Apostolic writings — Paul, i John and 
Hebrews. It will be noticed that this list omits Acts, James, 
i and 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. Neither this nor 
the list in the Muratorian Fragment can be regarded as a 
certain guide to church usage in that period, for their authors 
are unknown. But they are valuable as throwing light 
upon the growing process of selecting a list of authoritative 
books to which appeal could be made in the refutation of 
heresy. 

In the eastern church, Clement of Alexandria (165- 
220 a.d.) acknowledges the four Gospels and Acts, and 
fourteen epistles of Paul, thus including Hebrews. He also 
quotes from 1 and 2 John, 1 Peter, Jude and Revelation. He 
does not refer to James, 2 Peter or 3 John. But it is difficult 
to determine his views regarding the authentic list of sacred 
writings, for he also quotes in much the same manner from 
Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, the Preaching of 
Peter, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Sibylline Writings. 
According to Eusebius he had a collection of New Testa¬ 
ment books in two volumes which he called “ The Gospel ” 
and “ The Epistle ” respectively. 

Somewhat more conclusive is the testimony of Origen 
(184-253 a.d.), the greatest of the Greek church fathers. 
He mentions as authoritative the books of the Old Testa¬ 
ment as we have them, and portions of the Apocrypha, par¬ 
ticularly 1 Maccabees. He includes in the canon of the 
New Testament the four Gospels, Acts, thirteen epistles of 
Paul, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation. He does not 


-234- 




The Making of the New Testament 


directly mention James or Jude. He speaks of 2 Peter 
and 2 and 3 John as in dispute, and in more doubtful words 
refers to the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospels of Peter 
and James, the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, and 
Barnabas. But all his commentaries are upon books in our 
New Testament canon. 

An important contribution to the settlement of the 
question of canonicity was made by Eusebius of Caesarea 
(270-341 a.d.), the eminent church historian. He made 
three lists of books: First, those that were admitted by all, 
including the four Gospels, Acts, the Epistles of Paul, 
reckoned to be fourteen in number, 1 Peter, 1 John and 
(with some hesitation) Revelation. Second, those books 
that were widely accepted, though held doubtful by some; 
these included James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John. Third, 
those regarded by him as spurious, including the Acts of 
Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, 
and the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. At the order 
of the emperor Constantine, Eusebius had fifty copies of 
the Scriptures prepared in elaborate form for the use of 
the churches of Constantinople. These copies naturally con¬ 
formed to his rule of canonicity and assisted in fixing it. 

From this time onward the eastern church continued to 
hold much the same view. Athanasius (246-273 a.d.) gives 
a list of New Testament books which agrees with our own. 
So also does Epiphanius (315-403 a.d.). Cyril of Jerusalem 
(350-386 a.d.) differs from them only in omitting Revela¬ 
tion. A little later (395 a.d.) appeared a versified list of the 
books of the New Testament by Amphilochius of Iconium, 
in which are found all the books as we have them except 


— 235 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Revelation. Chrysostom the famous patriarch of Constanti¬ 
nople (died 405 a.d.) gives no formal list of the books, but 
in his voluminous writings makes no mention of Revelation, 
or 2 Peter, or either of the three epistles of John. In an ap¬ 
pendix to the eighth book of the Apostolical Constitutions 
there is a document which may go back to the fourth cen¬ 
tury a.d., which places Ben Sirach after the Old Testament 
and follows it with the four Gospels, fourteen epistles of 
Paul (including Hebrews), the two epistles of Clement, the 
eight books of the Apostolical Constitutions, and Acts. This, 
like some of the others, omits Revelation. 

In the western church at this period Augustine (354- 
430 a.d.) discussed the canon in a lengthy treatise, dividing 
the books into two lists, those which all received, and those 
regarding which there was some question. In the case of the 
latter group he thought the usage of the churches, par¬ 
ticularly the more important ones, should decide. His final 
verdict agrees with our own New Testament. Jerome (346- 
420 a.d.), whose Latin version, the Vulgate, did more to fix 
the canon than any other single influence, accepted the same 
list as his great contemporary, noting that there had been 
questions regarding James, Jude, Hebrews and Revelation. 
He remarks that 2 and 3 John have been attributed to a cer¬ 
tain presbyter John of Ephesus. 

None of the early church councils seem to have given 
pronouncement on the subject of the canon, if a possible de¬ 
cision of the Council of Laodicea (about 360 a.d.) be ex¬ 
cepted. This approves the Old Testament, Baruch and the 
Epistle of Jeremiah, and all the New Testament with the 
exception of Revelation. But this testimony is question- 

— 236 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


able. In the west, the Third Council of Carthage (397 a.d.) 
ordered that nothing be read as Scripture in the churches 
except die Canonical Scriptures, which are named as the 
Old Testament, the entire Apocrypha, and the New Testa¬ 
ment in its present form. These consiliar decisions probably 
had but small effect upon the growing verdict of the church. 
It was rather the immense influence of Augustine, and the 
widespread use of Jerome’s Vulgate which put an end to 
the discussion for centuries. 

During all this time if there had been question as to why 
these particular books were included in the received canon 
the reply would doubtless have been that tradition and 
usage accepted them as the work of the Apostles, or at least 
of apostolic men. But the Revival of Learning and the Ref¬ 
ormation which followed it turned attention to the sub¬ 
ject afresh. The reformers appealed to an authoritative 
Scripture as over against the authoritative Church of Rome. 
Of course this appeal necessitated careful inquiry into the 
nature and validity of the Bible. Were these books which 
had been accepted for centuries as apostolic actually the 
writings of the first interpreters of Jesus ? 

Erasmus doubted that the Epistle to the Hebrews was 
either by Paul or Luke; he did not think 2 Peter could have 
been the work of that apostle; and he disbelieved that Rev¬ 
elation was from the hand of the evangelist John. He did 
not question the worth of these books, nor their right to a 
place in the canon; he only denied their apostolic origin. 
But this was also to invalidate the familiar criterion of 
apostolic genesis. Luther was equally bold in his challenge 
of the traditional views of biblical authorship. In this he 


— 237 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


held ground similar to that taken by some of the Roman 
Catholic scholars of his day. Cardinal Cajetan, in the Augs¬ 
burg disputation with Luther, questioned whether Hebrews 
was either Pauline or canonical, and doubted whether 2 and 3 
John and Jude should be included. 

The reformers insisted that the contents not the author¬ 
ship of New Testament books must determine their can- 
onicity. Luther’s criterion was the conformity of a book 
to his great principle of justification by faith. He held 
therefore that the epistles of Paul — especially Romans, Gal¬ 
atians and Ephesians — 1 Peter and the fourth Gospel were 
the most important books of the collection. He placed He¬ 
brews, James, Jude and Revelation at the end of his trans¬ 
lation as having a somewhat different tone. He was very 
free in his discussion of the relative merits of the various 
books. But he included them all in his translation. Calvin 
had a different rule, and regarded the testimony of the holy 
Spirit within the books as the test of their canonicity. He 
passed over 2 and 3 John and the Revelation without notice, 
and expressed doubts regarding 2 Peter, James and Jude. 
Luther’s friend Carlstadt arranged the Bible in three di¬ 
visions: the Pentateuch and the four Gospels; the prophets 
of the Old Testament and the Epistles of the New, including 
thirteen of Paul, 1 Peter and 1 John; and the Writings, or 
Hagiographa, of the Old Testament and the seven disputed 
books of the New. Thus in spite of wide variety of opinion 
regarding the origin of the New Testament books, the re¬ 
formers did not alter the canon. 

The first official and general pronouncement made upon 
the question was the declaration of the Council of Trent 


— 238 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


(1546 a.d.), which uttered anathema upon anyone refusing 
to accept as canonical all the books contained in the Vulgate 
version of the Scriptures. This fixed the Apocrypha along 
with the Old Testament as an accepted part of the Roman 
Catholic Bible. In the New Testament, Romanists and 
Protestants hold the validity of the same books. The many 
versions of the Bible issued in various languages by the 
Protestant churches have made familiar their collection and 
arrangement of the various portions of holy Scripture. 

In recent years the problems relating to the canon have 
given way in large measure to the more important inquiries 
suggested by biblical criticism. This discipline has gone 
afresh into the matters of authorship and date with valuable 
results for biblical study. But the canon remains unaffected, 
for the reason that it rests today mainly upon tradition and 
usage. If the apostolic authorship once affirmed of prac¬ 
tically all the books cannot longer be claimed, at least a cer¬ 
tain apostolic atmosphere and feeling is discoverable in all. 
To this must be added their place in the church through the 
years, which invests them with a veneration not to be ques¬ 
tioned; and above all, their inherent value as aids to the in¬ 
terpretation of the early Christian ideal and character. 

It must be borne in mind however that valuable as the 
opinion of the early church may have been in regard to the 
canonicity of certain books, and important as the con¬ 
firmation of that verdict by the church through the centuries 
may be for belief and comfort today, yet it is the conviction 
of the individual mind at last which must determine what 
for itself shall be the limits of holy Scripture. In reality 
our Bible, the Bible we know and reverence, consists of just 


— 239 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


those books we actually use, the ones which have proved their 
power to find and inspire us. It is useless for anyone to in¬ 
sist that his Bible has in it a list of books which the church, 
or the beliefs of his fathers, or any other validation, has 
approved. In the final issue the canon of any Christian is 
the group of books he uses as the Word of God. We are 
the makers of our own individual canons, just as the Chris¬ 
tian world has always chosen deliberately and perhaps half 
unconsciously its Scripture. 

And if that historic process of canon fixing were to be¬ 
gin all over again, and were to be submitted afresh to all 
classes of people, and if there were to be added to the mate¬ 
rial available for choice all the books written in all the lands 
since the Bible took form, the result would be the same. 
These sixty-six books would emerge once more from the 
process, a new yet venerable aggregation of writings upon 
the high themes of God and religion. They have proved 
their worth through the ages. And to the end of time they 
are destined to go on proving themselves to be the divine 
word to men, the supreme literature of the race. 

Having spoken of the authentic biblical books in this 
and other chapters, something may well be added regarding 
that larger circle of writings which forms the environment 
of the Scriptures, and may well be called the Larger Bible. 
As already pointed out once and again, the Bible is not a 
solitary work, although this has been the usual tradition 
concerning it. It is a matter of history that until recent times 
the Bible stood almost if not quite alone in the occidental 
mind as the world’s holy book. No other books or docu¬ 
ments intruded into the cloistered and safeguarded inclosure 


— 240 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


in which it reigned. If it was not held actually to be the old¬ 
est of books, certain of its contents like Genesis and Job 
were given this place of priority among the world’s writings. 
If there were documents that had association with the 
authentic books of the Scriptures, and were even included 
as apocryphal works in certain editions, they were usually 
treated as literary curiosities, mere odds and ends of re¬ 
ligious experience, related in some indefinite and unim¬ 
portant manner to the genuine collection. 

At the present time this vague and defensive attitude to¬ 
ward the wider ranges of this literature is disappearing, and 
the Bible is seen as having immediate and helpful relations 
with varieties of literature which relate themselves to it in 
many ways. This volume of writings includes by no means 
all of the literature which this religious movement, taken 
in its long stretches from ancient Hebrew times through the 
classic era and to post-apostolic days, has produced. The 
fact that the Bible is accepted throughout Christendom as 
the unique and adequate interpreter of the Christian faith 
does not justify the neglect of that mass of documents which 
took form in the same environment, and which have been 
carried along in a rather loose and yet somewhat related 
series of collections. Each of these smaller bodies of docu¬ 
ments holds some relation to our Bible. They may be said 
to revolve about it, as planets of varying size and importance 
revolve around the sun. 

If one undertakes to put these different collections of 
writings into some orderly arrangement he may well be¬ 
gin with those which have come into our possession through 
the discovery and translation of the historical inscriptions 

— 241 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


and other documents of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria and the 
other lands that formed the environment of the Hebrew 
people. Formerly biblical events and characters stood out 
by themselves, with no confirmation from contemporary 
history. Biblical statements regarding contacts with these 
neighboring states stood upon their own authority, without 
aid of the historical background which comparative history 
and biblical archaeology have now provided. The inscrip¬ 
tions of kings like Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, Ne¬ 
buchadrezzar, Cyrus, and several of the pharaohs read like 
additional chapters to the books of Kings. Equally valuable 
for the study of the New Testament are the literary materials 
and the archaeological discoveries that have given fresh in¬ 
terest to the history of the Graeco-Roman period. 

A second list of writings is one that is not now in the 
possession of biblical scholarship, but must be kept in the 
imagination of the student if a just estimate is to be made 
of the literary impulse that produced the Old Testament. 
This is the group of actually “ lost books,” to which reference 
is made from time to time in the Hebrew Scriptures, not as 
a collection, but as individual writings which were known 
to the authors who referred to them.* The Book of Jasher, 
the Book of the Wars of Jahveh, the History of Samuel the 
Seer, the History of Nathan the Prophet, the Book of the 
Acts of Solomon, the Histories of Shemiah the Prophet and 
of Iddo the Seer, the Commentary of the Book of the Kings, 
and several other works are mentioned, as well as those 
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Judah which are so 
tantalizingly and so frequently mentioned in the narratives 

♦Sec pp. 17, 24, 35. 


— 242 — 





The Making of the New Testament 


that have survived. These references afford suggestion of 
the ampler body of writings once possessed by the Hebrew 
people. But all have perished save the thirty-nine books 
in our collection. Indeed the survival of any writing that 
was in Hebrew seems to have been the chief criterion for 
its inclusion in the canon. Will some of these lost docu¬ 
ments be found as the result of the fresh interest in excava¬ 
tion in biblical lands ? It is not probable. Yet the door is 
never closed. 

A third group of documents related to the Bible is the 
so-called Apocrypha of the Old Testament. This is the col¬ 
lection of books written in late Hebrew, in Aramaic, and in 
hellenistic Greek. This language that superseded Hebrew 
as a vehicle of literary activity, and was employed in the 
preparation of a number of late utterances related to Hebrew 
and Jewish interests, was made the medium for the trans¬ 
lation of the Old Testament into the literature of the 
later Graeco-Egyptian age, and furnished the speech of the 
New Testament. The body of apocryphal works, including 
Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus 
ben Sirach, and others, fourteen in all, was often included in 
the older and larger Bibles, between the two Testaments. 
By the Roman Catholic church they have been given a higher 
value than by Protestants. They throw valuable light 
upon conditions in the Jewish community in the late pre- 
Christian period, and are receiving more of the attention 
they deserve. 

Fourth in this enumeration of books intimately related 
to the Bible is the collection of Jewish and Christian apoca¬ 
lypses, the study of which has taken so important a place 


— 243 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


in the recent activities of biblical scholars.* The Bible con¬ 
tains two books of the apocalyptic type, Daniel and Revela¬ 
tion. But there was a considerable literature of similar 
character which took form between 200 b.c. and 150 a.d. 
It was a literature of confident appeal from an era of per¬ 
secution to one of divine vindication. It was a literature of 
cryptic utterance, symbolism, significant numbers and colors, 
in which the saints of the Jewish or the Christian assemblies 
were assured of an early deliverance from their persecutions 
and the overthrow of their foes. This list of books includes, 
besides the two mentioned, the various apocalypses of Enoch 
and Ezra, Baruch, the Assumption of Moses, the Ascension 
of Isaiah, the Psalms of Solomon, the Book of Jubilees, the 
Sibylline Oracles, and fragments of other works. The in¬ 
fluence of these documents upon the thought and speech 
both of Jews and Christians in the first century was notable, 
and may be observed in many of the expressions of the New 
Testament. There is no single collection of these books, 
as it would run to considerable size. But in separate vol¬ 
umes, with valuable commentation, they are accessible in 
the editions of Professor Charles and other modern scholars. 

A final list of works may be called roughly the apocry¬ 
pha of the New Testament. The selection of the twenty- 
seven books of the present Christian Scriptures was not a 
rapid process. As already explained, many works came from 
the hands of early Christian writers, and many different col¬ 
lections were formed, some containing more and some less 
than our present New Testament. Those that did not find 
acceptance in the collections made by the greater leaders of 

* See pp. uq f. 


— 244 — 




The Making of the New Testament 


the church, like Clement and Origen, were still regarded as 
of interest, and some of them, like Barnabas, Hermas, the 
Clementine letters, and the Teachings of the Twelve, came 
to have a place hardly inferior to the canonical books. Other 
writings there were of early date but less significance, like 
the various spurious Gospels — of Mary, of the Infancy, of 
Nicodemus, of Thomas, of Peter — the Acts of Paul and 
Thecla, the Acts of Pilate, several pseudo-apostolic epistles 
such as the Magnesians, the Trallians, the Smyrnaeans, etc. 
To these later collectors have added various legendary frag¬ 
ments, such as the fictitious correspondence of Paul and 
Seneca, the fanciful stories of Christ and Abgarus, and the 
equally mythical letters of Herod and Pilate. Such books 
grade down from early and reverent Christian writings, 
through pseudo-authoritative instructions and recitals, to 
purely imaginary sketches, the effort to satisfy natural 
Christian curiosity regarding the early period of the church. 

These various lists of works, most of them available for 
the use of the student of biblical literature, throw valuable 
light upon the nature and purpose of the authentic Scrip¬ 
tures, and indeed constitute a sort of larger Bible, whose in¬ 
telligent examination cannot fail to prove of profit to those 
who wish to master the meaning and interpret the spirit of 
the holy Scriptures. 


— 245 — 




XV 

BIBLICAL CRITICISM 


The Hebrew of the Old Testament books was a speech 
closely related to the other Semitic languages, like the 
Babylonian, Phoenician and Arabic. It was written in an 
alphabet much more archaic than the square so-called He¬ 
brew letters of our common Hebrew texts, which are in 
reality Aramaic, the sort which superseded the classic form 
some centuries before Christ. Examples of the older writing, 
such as that in which most of the Old Testament was 
written, are to be found in the Moabite inscription of King 
Mesha of the period of 800 b.c., in the Siloam inscription of 
the reign of Hezekiah, and in Phoenician inscriptions. 

No portion of the Old Testament has survived in original 
documents. The earliest specimens of biblical Hebrew are 
found in certain fragments whose date is not earlier than the 
tenth century a.d. From later times great numbers of such 
manuscripts of the Old Testament text are extant. They 
owe their preservation to the care with which they were 
handled in the synagogues of the Jewish people. But ex¬ 
amination of their character shows that they all go back to 
a single edition of the text, prepared by Jewish scholars in 
the third Christian century, at which time the variant read¬ 
ings were eliminated and imperfect manuscripts suppressed, 
after the manner followed by the editors of the Koran in 
later days. 


— 246 — 


Biblical Criticism 


The labor of unifying and preserving the Hebrew text 
was begun about 250 a.d. by Rabbi Aqiba and his disciples, 
and continued for many centuries in the various rabbinical 
schools. Elaborate rules were devised for the careful trans¬ 
mission of the text, and the exactitude with which this was 
accomplished is shown by the fact that the errors of that es¬ 
tablished codex have been perpetuated with the same zeal 
as its proper readings. This was done in the belief that the 
inexplicable forms, like abnormally small or large letters 
found in the text, were in some mystical manner significant 
of the divine will and not to be disturbed. 

These scholars of the Jewish schools have received the 
names of Massoretes from the fact that the product of their 
labors was called the Massorah or tradition, the thing that 
was handed on. One of the devices used to perpetuate the 
interpretation as well as the form of the text upon which 
they came to agree was the invention of the vowel points 
for the Hebrew text. As written at first, and in fact more 
commonly through all the history of the language, Hebrew 
had only consonants. The vowels were supplied by the 
reader. But as in our own language, this would naturally 
lead to great ambiguity. 

To obviate such danger of confusion, the Massoretic 
scribes devised a system of points and other marks to be used 
above, below and within the various consonant letters. This 
was no doubt of great advantage. But at best it only served 
to make permanent the interpretation which had met the 
approval of the Massoretes. 

As a matter of fact very serious changes had been 
wrought in the Hebrew text between the days in which the 


— 247 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


various portions of the Old Testament took form and the 
time of the unification of its text in the second and third 
Christian centuries. This is proved by the variations from 
that text shown in the LXX, in the Tar gums and in the 
New Testament. But perhaps the most convincing proof 
of errors in transcription is found in the differences between 
two sets of parallel narratives in the Old Testament itself, 
as in the comparison of Kings with Chronicles, of 2 Samuel 
22 with Psalm 18, and many other instances. It is well-nigh 
impossible to copy a manuscript correctly. Errors of all 
sorts are likely to creep in. Such errors are due to failure 
to understand the passage copied, or to a mistake of the eye 
in reading one word or letter for another, or to a misunder¬ 
standing of words when several copyists follow the voice of 
a reader, or failure of memory to carry properly several 
words in a series. These and other types of scribal mistake 
are abundantly illustrated by the ordinary Old Testament 
text. 

It is therefore the task of one who undertakes the study 
of the text of the Old Testament to recognize the fact that 
the original writers used a form of Hebrew letters different 
from those now in use, that they did not employ vowel 
points, that their words were in many instances not separated 
one from another, and that the divisions of their material 
were not marked off in any way. From all this it follows 
that the sort of study which yields the most satisfactory 
results is that which secures from the materials now at hand 
the meanings most in harmony with the current of biblical 
teaching throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. This would 
seem simple and obvious. But it does not take account of 


-—248 — 






Biblical Criticism 


Jewish and even early Christian tradition which at times 
obtrudes itself in the path of the plain meanings of the 
writings. 

With the weight of this ancient tradition clearly felt, 
it is not strange that most of the translations should have been 
content to go back to the Massoretic text. This has been true 
from the days of Jerome and the Vulgate. Through all the 
centuries since that time the immense volume of material 
slowly collected from the many versions has been given 
small attention until our own day. Even yet the spell of 
the Jewish tradition is strong. In most cases in which stu¬ 
dents attempt to study the Hebrew text of the Old Testa¬ 
ment they content themselves with such editions of the Mas¬ 
soretic reading as those of Baer and Delitzsch, or Ginsburg. 
As might be expected the Revised Version which took form 
before the searching critical work of the last twenty-five 
years came to light relies almost as much as the King James 
version upon the Massoretic text. The special labors of an 
army of independent scholars in the field of Old Testament 
textual criticism is now available. 

The work of finding the most nearly perfect text of the 
Bible or of any other book is called textual criticism. A 
more common name for it is the Lower Criticism. This 
term is not employed to signify a lower grade of importance 
attaching to this process than to some other but to indicate 
the primary, fundamental character of these inquiries as 
contrasted with those of the historical and literary inves¬ 
tigations which follow. These latter have to do with au¬ 
thorship, integrity, historicity and chronology. They are 
comprehended under the term Higher Criticism. 


— 249 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


Criticism means separation. It is the attempt to dis¬ 
criminate between the genuine and the spurious, the original 
and the superficial. All students of the Bible recognize the 
invaluable nature of the labors of textual critics. Upon the 
foundations they have laid and are laying, the structure of 
historical studies, Hebrew and Christian origins, and the 
theological disciplines takes form. There was a time when 
all types of biblical criticism were viewed with disquietude 
by the uninformed. Now the vital necessity of such re¬ 
searches as have been made both by the lower and the higher 
critics, and the value of their results both to scholarship 
and to faith are the commonplaces of intelligent Bible 
study. 

If the work of the textual critic has been of great value 
in the field of Old Testament study, even more romantic 
and not less significant has it been in the case of the Chris¬ 
tian documents. And as these are the literary materials 
upon which rests the religious assurance of the most pro¬ 
gressive nations in the world, their importance as sources 
and the necessity of their complete investigation are at once 
apparent. 

As in the case of the older Scriptures, there are no auto¬ 
graph copies of the New Testament extant. The most 
ancient copies we possess go back no further than the fourth 
century. It is probable that the books were mostly written 
and copied upon papyrus, a perishable material at best. It 
was not until Christianity became a recognized and power¬ 
ful influence in the Roman empire in the fourth century 
that the multiplication and preservation of its books became 
a matter of widespread concern, and papyrus was super- 


— 250 — 





Biblical Criticism 


seded by vellum or parchment as the material on which 
its documents were reproduced. 

Of these manuscripts there were two sorts, an earlier and 
a later. From the fourth to the tenth century they were 
written in Greek capital letters, and were for that reason 
called uncials. From the tenth century a smaller and more 
running script was used. This is called minuscule or cursive. 
Of the uncials about one hundred and sixty are known, con¬ 
taining the entire New Testament, or parts of it. Of the 
cursives there are upwards of three thousand. 

There are five of the great uncials that are the most 
famous. The discovery by Tischendorf of a manuscript of 
the Greek Bible in the library of the monastery of St. Cath¬ 
erine at the traditional Mt. Sinai in 1844 was one of the 
most notable events in the history of the biblical text. This 
was secured by him in 1859 and is now in the Imperial Li¬ 
brary at Leningrad. It is known as Codex Sinaiticus, or 
Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It dates from 
the fourth century. There is in the British Museum a 
manuscript of most of the Greek Bible given to Charles I 
in 1627 by the Patriarch of Constantinople. It is known as 
Codex Alexandrinus, or A. In the Vatican Library at Rome 
there is probably the oldest and most valuable manuscript 
of the Greek New Testament. It is of the fourth century, 
and is called Codex Vaticanus, or B. In the Bibliotheque 
Nationale at Paris there is a manuscript of the Greek Bible 
dating from the fifth century. In the twelfth century a 
Syrian Christian named Ephraem washed or scraped the 
vellum in order to write some of his own compositions upon 
it. It is, therefore, a palimpsest, nearly illegible in portions. 


— 251 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


It is called Codex Ephraemi, or C. In the University Li¬ 
brary at Cambridge there is a Greek and Latin codex of the 
Gospels and Acts, which was presented by Theodore Beza, 
who obtained it from the monastery of St. Irenaeus at Lyons. 
It is believed to come from the sixth century, or perhaps 
even the fifth. It is named Codex Bezae, or D. 

It is the task of the textual critic of the New Testament, 
in the effort to approach as near as possible to the authentic 
text of the Christian sources, to compare these and the 
scores and even hundreds of other manuscripts of the Greek 
New Testament, or of parts of it; to secure in addition all the 
information furnished by the many ancient versions; and to 
compare with these the many quotations found in the early 
Christian fathers which show what readings they found in 
the texts they used. 

The Greek text of the New Testament which was best 
known to scholars until recent times is called the Textus 
Receptus, or Received Text. It is practically the same as 
that published by Stephens in 1550 and by the Elzevirs in 
1624. These in turn were based upon the two earliest printed 
texts of the New Testament, that of Erasmus, published in 
1516, and that of the Complutension Polyglot, printed in 
1514 and issued in 1522. They were representative of the 
kind of Greek manuscripts accessible in the middle ages. 
Upon the Received Text the Authorized or King James 
Version of the New Testament was based. A very large 
proportion of the material with which the textual critic of 
the New Testament is concerned has become available during 
the past two centuries. Much of this evidence goes far back 
of anything Erasmus or his contemporaries had at hand. 


— 252 — 






Biblical Criticism 


For example, the Vatican Codex, the oldest and best of the 
texts, has become fully known only within the last half 
century, and Tischendorf’s great discovery was not pub¬ 
lished until 1862. 

The list of men who have worked at the task of com¬ 
piling the facts and applying them to the reconstruction of 
the text of the New Testament books is long. Among the 
notable names are Bengal (1734), Wetstein (1752), Semler 
(1767), Griesbach (1774), Lachman (1831), Tischendorf 
(1869), and Tregelles (1870). But the most eminent con¬ 
tributors to a satisfactory text have been the two English 
scholars, Bishop Westcott and F. J. S. Hort. Their joint 
labors upon the Greek text began as far back as 1853, but 
their finished product, accompanied by an explanatory in¬ 
troduction, came from the press in 1881, five days before 
the publication of the English Revised Version. 

In the long years during which the science of textual 
criticism has developed, many recognized rules for the prose¬ 
cution of the task have taken form. These are now familiar 
to all scholars. Among them are the necessity of gathering 
all the facts, historical, geographical and linguistic, regard¬ 
ing a manuscript before its evidence is estimated; the danger 
of relying upon numbers, since twenty manuscripts might be 
copied from an inferior text and be of less value than two 
whose ancestry is older and more satisfactory; a shorter 
reading is preferable to a longer one, because a text is more 
likely to be changed by additions than by omissions; a more 
difficult and obscure reading is to be preferred to one simpler 
and easier, because a copyist has a tendency to explain a seem¬ 
ingly difficult passage; and a reading which indicates a 


— 253 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


controversial bias is less likely to be genuine than one to 
which no such suspicion adheres. 

The application of these and numerous other criteria 
has given us our comparatively modern and authenticated 
text of the New Testament, although the Westcott and Hort 
material was not available for the English Revision. But 
even so in many places the Revised Versions show the value 
of careful critical work, as compared with the Authorized 
Version. One who is interested in the new readings which 
have resulted from the work of textual criticism has only to 
compare the Authorized Version of 1611 with the Revised 
Versions and their marginal readings, and especially with 
the modern speech versions, to perceive what a wealth of 
material has in late years been made available to biblical 
scholarship and has contributed to a more adequate under¬ 
standing of the Bible. 

In this manner by the slow but steady processes of 
trained and expert examination of every line of the Scrip¬ 
tures, both of the Old and the New Testaments, the world 
of biblical study is brought nearer to the original documents 
as they left the hands of their writers. These writings were 
not supernaturally produced in the beginning, and they have 
not been preserved to us in any miraculous manner. They 
bear the marks of human workmanship both in their pro¬ 
duction and transmission. But with all the limitations 
under which they have come into our keeping they vindi¬ 
cate their right to a unique and transcendent place in the 
regard of mankind, and they abundantly justify the long 
centuries of labor bestowed upon them. 

It is probable that in spite of all that critical research 


— 254 — 




Biblical Criticism 


may be able to accomplish in the future, some portions of the 
sacred text will always remain obscure. But these imper¬ 
fections are negligible in comparison with the wealth of in¬ 
spired and inspiring material whose meaning is quite clear 
and whose vindication has been achieved by the processes 
of criticism. To the men who have labored in these in¬ 
dustries of scholarship the church owes a debt which no 
mere mention of names can ever discharge, an obligation 
which only the accumulated gratitude of the centuries to 
come can reward. 

During the past century the books of the Bible have 
been subjected to searching examination as the result not 
only of textual criticism but as well by the application 
of the methods of historical and literary examination. 
That activity arose as the result of the general scientific 
movement with its appeal to fact and its rejection of tradi¬ 
tion. The discovery of glaring errors in historical or semi- 
historical documents relating both to political and religious 
history sharpened the interest of inquirers to apply some 
method of discrimination to a wide range of ancient 
writings. The discovery by Valla of the false decretals and 
the spurious donations by which validation was apparently 
secured for ecclesiastical pretensions in the Roman Empire, 
in the times of Constantine and his successors, stirred the 
scholarly world to further research. The nature and trust¬ 
worthiness of many types of literature inherited from classic 
periods came under scrutiny. 

It was inevitable that soon or late this process should 
be applied to the Old and New Testaments. The purely 
scientific concern for the correct tradition was intensified in 


— 255 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the case of the Scriptures by religious considerations. It was 
to be expected that such activity would arouse apprehension 
on the part of those who had no reason to question the 
familiar theories of biblical authorship, dates and values. 
The form in which the Bible was received by the church 
in the eighteenth century, and the views then held regard¬ 
ing its literary history were considered authentic, authori¬ 
tative and final. To only a few biblical scholars had there 
occurred such questions as are today the commonplaces of 
careful Bible study. Something of the work of the textual 
critic has been indicated. Upon that foundation it was neces¬ 
sary to set the task of literary and historical investigation. 
To some this seemed unnecessary and irreverent. But it 
becomes increasingly evident upon study and reflection that 
in the Bible the student is dealing with a human literature 
which has the common characteristics of all literary work. 

It is clear then that inquiry into the structure and pecu¬ 
liarities of this literature is inevitable. Only timidity and 
submission to traditional opinions could inhibit from such 
a task. The merest reading of some books of Scripture 
shows that they are made up of two or three wholly un¬ 
related parts which were probably at one time separate 
books; and others are seen to be compiled from various 
sources by editorial activity which has in turn become re¬ 
sponsible for additions to the original material. The frank 
recognition of these facts is in no way disturbing to the 
faith of any believer in the value of the Scriptures as the 
highest literary expression of the will of God. Since these 
qualities of combination and expansion are evident in other 
kinds of writing, why should they discredit a set of docu- 

— 256 — 




Biblical Criticism 


ments which have proved their ethical and religious value 
not only in spite of but in some considerable degree because 
of these very qualities of human workmanship? 

The Old Testament came into the possession of the 
Christian church carrying certain assumptions and traditions 
regarding its origin and structure. Jewish opinion asserted 
that its books fell into three groups of distinctly different 
value and inspiration. There were the five books assigned 
to Moses, the authoritative standard of doctrine and conduct 
and the object of far-reaching and luminous labors of com¬ 
mentation. There was the body of prophetic writings, 
highly valued though not to a degree approaching the 
reverence in which the Torah was held. The traditions re¬ 
garding the authorship of such books as Samuel, Isaiah, 
Zechariah and the like were regarded as authentic and satis¬ 
factory. Then there was the collection of miscellaneous 
writings which included all the books left over from the 
two previous lists. Here again tradition was free to insist 
upon certain sacred names as those of recognized authors. 
The Davidic origin of the Psalms, the Solomonic author¬ 
ship of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the exilic date and authen¬ 
ticity of Daniel were not questioned either in the later Jewish 
community or in the early Christian church. It was not 
painstaking inquiry on the part either of Jews or Chris¬ 
tians that validated these documents; it was only the fact 
that no one ever suspected any occasion for question regard¬ 
ing them. If there still remained in scribal schools the 
echoes of recent controversies over Ecclesiastes and Canticles 
they were soon forgotten in the multiplying labors of Tal¬ 
mudic commentation and Christian evangelism. 


— 257 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


There was little effort to question these early opinions 
for centuries. It should be noted however that the obscure 
spaces of both Jewish and Christian history lying between 
the first and fifteenth centuries were not without fruitful 
work in the field of biblical scholarship, and now and then 
there were voices raising casual but not insistent questions 
regarding the ancient traditions. This process of inquiry 
was greatly stimulated at the period of the Reformation by 
the light into which the Bible was thrown as the Protestant 
source of authority over against the papal claims of the 
Roman Church. The reformers used the Bible with the 
utmost freedom, giving little heed either to Jewish or 
Christian notions regarding dates and authorships. One is 
astonished to see how radical were some of the views ad¬ 
vanced by Luther and his contemporaries as compared with 
the timid conservatism of the second generation of reformers 
with their favorite doctrine of verbal inspiration. But 
the modern discipline of the literary and historical criticism 
of the Bible was yet to be born. It could only come to birth 
as the child of the new spirit of scientific and historical in¬ 
quiry that sought to test all the facts in these fields, and to 
hold fast only to that which could prove its worth. 

The modern method of literary criticism of the Bible 
arose first out of the unrelated but similar inquiries of such 
investigators as Astruc, Colenso, Simon, and Spinoza. 
The attention of these men was attracted to certain literary 
phenomena in Genesis and other portions of the Hexateuch. 
The variations noted in the use of the divine names in the 
early chapters of Genesis, the apparent presence of two dif¬ 
ferent narratives of such events as the creation, the deluge 

— 258 — 






Biblical Criticism 


and many incidents in the patriarchal stories led to the 
gradual adoption of the documentary hypothesis, though not 
without ebbs and tides of opinion and the rise and fall of 
other theories such as that of the “fragment” hypothesis. 
These workers, and those who followed them in this field, 
men like Ewald, Keunen, DeWette, Stade, Vatke, Well- 
hausen, Hupfeld, Budde, and a distinguished company be¬ 
sides, attacked the various problems that arose when once 
the spirit of inquiry was fully released. They did not come 
to their task for the purpose of challenging and discrediting 
the traditional views nor on the other hand with the motive 
of their defense. Rather they came to seek the facts, know¬ 
ing that whatever were the results obtained by a process 
carried on in that spirit, truth and religion would profit 
thereby. Already discredited in its very beginnings is the 
labor of any man who undertakes the work of criticism 
merely for the purpose of establishing a preconceived 
opinion, no matter whether it be conservative or radical. It 
is only in the atmosphere of free and unbiased research, 
and with the conflict of opinions which is sure to follow 
any new proposal that the best values of Scripture and 
theology emerge. 

Thus criticism is both destructive and constructive. It 
signifies the removal of those things which can be shaken 
that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. In 
all of its earlier stages it is sure to be destructive and alarm¬ 
ing. It appears to be an audacious digging around the roots 
of the tree of life. In the Christian church it has brought 
dismay to multitudes of souls firm in the belief that their 
inherited and traditional views of the Bible were identical 


— 259 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


with the very nature of the divine revelation, and that any 
modification of such views was heretical and inexcusable. 
But that sentiment passes away as the discovery is made that 
the critical inquirers have no personal ends to serve but 
are only searching for facts. And in the end of the day it 
becomes clear that as the result of the critical process the 
Bible has gained immeasurably larger values, and is shown 
to rest not on heaps of sand but on mountains of rock. 

If it has been proved in the process of critical inquiry 
that the book of Joshua is a part of a sixfold unit called 
the Hexateuch which has taken the place of the former 
fivefold Pentateuch; that Moses is only a common denomi¬ 
nator for the legislation of Israel rather than the lawgiver 
which later Hebrew tradition made him to be; that there 
are four documents in the Hexateuch almost as clearly dif¬ 
ferentiated as are the four Gospels of the New Testament; 
that the prophetic and priestly histories are compilations 
made up from various sources and with differing values; 
that the Psalms are Davidic only in the sense that this early 
king of Israel was believed to be a musician and a patron 
of the music of the sanctuary; that it is questionable whether 
we have any literary material which directly represents 
Solomon; that the book of Isaiah is made up of at least three 
different bodies of prophetic material from different ages 
of the national experience, and manifests in addition the 
results of editorial work to a marked degree; that the book 
of Daniel is in no sense a work of prophecy and that it 
assumes for purposes of apocalyptic persuasion the name 
and character of Daniel; that the four Gospels are anony¬ 
mous and give clear evidences of the usual literary relation- 


— 260 — 





Biblical Criticism 


ships; that the common authorship of the fourth Gospel 
and Revelation cannot be maintained; that the Pauline au¬ 
thorship of Hebrews is no longer defensible and the relation 
of the apostle to the Pastoral Epistles is improbable; if, let 
it be repeated, it has become evident that these are among 
the conclusions to which painstaking and accurate scholar¬ 
ship has been led, the result is not the discrediting of these 
portions of the Bible but rather a closer approach to their 
true origin and purpose. No part of the Bible gains in value 
merely by being assigned to some distinguished moral leader 
of the past; its value lies wholly in its own message and 
urgency. 

It is the function then of the literary criticism of Scrip¬ 
ture to raise inquiries regarding the integrity, authenticity, 
credibility and historical value of the documents which make 
up our collection of sacred writings. One wishes to know 
whether a book like Nehemiah or Matthew is a single docu¬ 
ment written by one author or is an amalgam of different 
works, a composite of various strata of writing. It is also 
natural that one should ask whether it seems probable 
that the name attached to a given book like Samuel or the 
Song of Songs or James is the name of the author, or the 
hero, or is a mere literary device. One makes inquiry fur¬ 
thermore whether the statements made in a biblical narra¬ 
tive can be trusted, as in the cases of the healing of Naaman 
the Syrian and the recession of the shadow on the dial of 
Ahaz. These are not inquiries which are devised for the 
purpose of discrediting any document, biblical or otherwise. 
They are the inevitable questions which any thoughtful 
reader raises regarding the objects of his study. Criticism 


— 261 — 






The Bible Through the Centuries 


therefore is judgment, discrimination, investigation, and 
when properly pursued it has always the value of eliciting 
the kind of knowledge desired regarding the materials under 
examination. 

It is not without value in this connection to note the 
attitude of Jesus toward the Scriptures and his superb free¬ 
dom in their use. He was nourished upon the Old Testa¬ 
ment. He quoted from its various portions as if they were 
the ever-present background of his thinking. Yet he used 
them as if they were plastic to his touch. He did not hesi¬ 
tate to show their limitations while he pointed out their 
values. He contrasted the laws of Israel with his own ideals 
and maintained that the latter were permanent and com¬ 
plete. To be sure he did not discuss nor question the tradi¬ 
tional dates and authorship of these documents. If he knew 
more of the facts than his contemporaries he wisely applied 
the law of accommodation, or purposely declined to raise 
questions which had no value for religion or conduct. But 
in all other regards his was the attitude of a reverent critic 
of the sacred Scriptures, and under his interpretation of 
those ancient documents men’s hearts burned within them 
as they talked with him. The purposeful criticism of the 
Bible in all its parts may justly claim the example and 
authority of the Master himself. 

It would be a most interesting study to pursue step by 
step the path of biblical inquiry during the past century 
in the company of those devout and scholarly men who have 
labored nobly to disengage the Bible from the cerements 
of traditional views. Against these men and their published 
results a volume of protest was raised by those who were 


— 262 — 





Biblical Criticism 


disturbed in their comfortable biblical ideas. It was charged 
that these critics were disturbers of the peace, that they 
undermined the citadel of religion, that they spread the 
spirit of skepticism, and that they denied the divine char¬ 
acter of the Bible and of Jesus. No doubt, all these charges 
could be sustained in individual cases. But time has greatly 
reduced the spirit of opposition to literary and historical 
criticism. Today the voices of antagonism are growing 
fainter and are for the most part reduced to the circle of 
provincial evangelism and a futile section of the religious 
press. The process has vindicated itself by its results. The 
work of criticism has made human and convincing the story 
of the Old Testament. The prophets and apostles no longer 
look at us from the dim, unworldly heights of the Sistine 
Chapel in Michael Angelo’s portraits, but from the nearer 
and more sympathetic levels of Sargent and Tissot. 

The work of the Higher Criticism is not completed 
as yet, though the main lines of its affirmations have been 
established. It is largely in the region of details that work 
still remains to be done. Along the broad frontiers of biblical 
literature its results are accepted, and the great Christian 
public is well on its way toward complete conviction of its 
outstanding results and a calm and assured employment 
of its findings. It is difficult any longer to stir up con¬ 
troversy over the process. The odium once attached to those 
concerned with it has largely receded. On the foundations 
laid by the work of devout scholars in this field are building 
the impressive structures of a rational theology and religious 
education. The age of apprehension is passing. Our chil¬ 
dren will not have to fight the battle for freedom through 

— 263 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


which the present generation has been passing. The critical 
spirit that has given reasonable and convincing explanation 
of the physical universe has provided us with an equally 
satisfactory interpretation of the Word of God. 

The Higher Criticism has forever disposed of the fetish 
of a level Bible; it has destroyed the doctrine of verbal in¬ 
spiration; it has set in proper light the partial and primitive 
ethics of the Hebrew people; it has relieved the church of 
the responsibility of defending ancient social abuses which 
received popular and even prophetic sanction in Old Testa¬ 
ment times; it has made faith easier and more confident; it 
has helped the world to turn from the imperfect views of 
an adolescent stage of the race to the satisfying ideals of 
our Lord; it has enabled us to understand the varying testi¬ 
monies to the life of Jesus and the divergent tendencies of 
the apostolic age; and most of all it has explained the seem¬ 
ing contradictions and conflicts of biblical statement which 
were in former periods the target of captious and often 
successful attack. 

The work of the Higher Criticism has its purposes and 
its limitations. It is a means to the better understanding of 
the Word of God. If it can make more vivid and con¬ 
vincing the pages of the Old Testament and the New it 
performs an admirable and gratifying service. Whatever 
helps to the intelligent appreciation of the Bible is of un¬ 
doubted value, for as Mr. Gladstone wrote, “ All the wonders 
of Greek civilization heaped together are less wonderful 
than this Book, the history of the human soul in relation 
to its Maker.” 


— 264 — 




XVI 

TRANSLATIONS AND REVISIONS 
OF THE BIBLE 

The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew language 
with the exception of a few chapters in Daniel, a small 
portion of Ezra and a single verse of Jeremiah, which are 
written in Aramaic. No original copies of these Hebrew 
Scriptures exist. The earliest texts that are now available 
are not older than the tenth or eleventh century of the 
Christian era. The text we now possess is the result of a 
vast amount of labor in the comparison of such copies of 
the Scriptures as have come down from the past both in 
Hebrew and in the many versions into which they have been 
translated. 

Perhaps the nearest approach to an authentic Hebrew 
text is to be found in the Samaritan Pentateuch. This is a 
text of the first five books of the Old Testament dating from 
the fifth century b.c., the period in which the Samaritan 
community began its separate existence. That community 
rejected the other portions of the Old Testament as treasured 
in the Jewish circle at Jerusalem, and adhered to the Penta¬ 
teuch alone. Copies of this old text of the Torah have been 
jealously preserved by the little Samaritan colony sur¬ 
viving at Nablus, the ancient Shechem. These are written 
in the archaic Hebrew characters that were common before 
the Aramaic square letters came into use. 

— 265 — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


This Samaritan Pentateuch is not a translation of the 
five books, but an independent Hebrew text, and therefore 
valuable for comparison with other copies of the Pentateuch. 
The points in which it differs from the accepted forms of 
that text are chiefly such as pertain to the locality and be¬ 
liefs of that community, among which is the substitution 
of “ Gerizim ” for “ Ebal ” in the text of Deuteronomy 27:4, 
thus validating the site of the Samaritan temple. The total 
number of the variations is quite large and some are of 
interest. But few are important and these are generally 
mentioned in the margins of the later English texts. 

The earliest translation of the Old Testament was made 
into Greek, the language that was carried out into the east 
as the result of the wars of Alexander. It became the lan¬ 
guage of culture in all the Levant. There were many Jews 
living in Egypt in the third century before Christ. Tradition 
affirmed that a translation into Greek was prepared at the 
order of Ptolemy Philadelphus about 250 b.c. by seventy 
Jewish translators. It was probably undertaken by the 
Jewish community as the only means of access to the Hebrew 
Scriptures. The work was accomplished by various people 
through a period of a hundred and fifty years. Because of 
the tradition of the seventy translators it was generally 
known as the Septuagint, the “ Seventy,” and is represented 
by the symbol LXX. Some parts of the work were much 
more satisfactorily translated than others. Later on private 
translations of some of the books were found more accept¬ 
able and were substituted for the earlier version. 

The New Testament was written in this same Greek 
language, and thus the entire Bible came into the possession 


— 266 — 




Translations and Revisions of the Bible 


of the early Christian community in this tongue. The 
writers of the New Testament were familiar with the Sep- 
tuagint translation of the Hebrew Scripture and used that 
version in their quotations from the Old Testament. The 
fact that Greek was generally understood by educated people 
throughout the Roman empire was of the greatest advantage 
to the apostles and early Christian preachers. It was to 
them in reality a “ gift of tongues,” for it enabled them to 
reach people of many local dialects with the gospel in the 
common speech of the day. 

The official language of the empire was Latin. It was 
almost inevitable that this speech should in time displace 
the Greek as the church developed its liturgies and litera¬ 
ture. For this reason Latin versions of the Bible including 
both Old and New Testaments were produced as early as 
the first half of the third Christian century. These are vari¬ 
ously known as the Old Latin and the Itala versions. They 
were translated from the Greek text of the Septuagint and 
from the Greek of the New Testament. It is not certain in 
which part of the world these Latin versions were made, as 
by that time the church was expanding in all directions. 
But it is thought that Antioch was one of the cities in which 
they took form. 

By far the most important edition of the Bible in 
the language of Rome was the Vulgate, so called from the 
fact that it came to be the “ common ” or “ popular ” version 
of the Scriptures. It was made by Jerome, an accomplished 
scholar who was born about 340 a.d., and at the request of 
Pope Damasus undertook the task. During fourteen years 
which he spent in Bethlehem (390-404 a.d.) he brought 

— 267 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


out a complete translation of the Bible including the Apocry¬ 
pha. This work has remained ever since the accepted text 
of the Roman Catholic church. It is based not on the Sep- 
tuagint text of the Old Testament but upon the Hebrew, of 
which he made a study with the help of such aids as he 
could secure. This version like most of those that came 
later met the criticism and hostility of church authorities, 
who in that instance insisted that the Septuagint was the 
only authentic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Only 
slowly did Jerome’s version come into favor. 

Many popular translations of the Scriptures into various 
languages of the east were made in the early Christian cen¬ 
turies. There were many communities of Syrian Christians, 
and for them Syriac translations were made both of the 
Old and New Testaments. The Jewish people made for 
synagogue use versions of the Old Testament called Tar- 
gums, “ translations,” which were sometimes fairly accurate 
renderings of the Hebrew text into the Aramaic of common 
speech, and sometimes free paraphrases which made no 
effort to be literal. For the Christian population of Egypt 
several Coptic versions of all or portions of the Bible were 
made in the fifth and sixth centuries. At the southern end 
of the Red Sea in Abyssinia, the Sheba of the Hebrew 
writers, there were likewise Christian influences at work 
early in the history of the church. There in the fifth century 
appeared a version of the Bible in the Ethiopic language. In 
the region which we now know as Serbia and Bulgaria, 
Ulfilas the apostle of the gospel to the Goths lived and 
wrought in the latter part of the fourth century. He trans¬ 
lated the Scriptures into the Gothic language, the speech 


— 268 — 





Translations and Revisions of the Bible 


of the barbarians who had raided the districts of Cappa¬ 
docia and carried off his parents a generation before. A con¬ 
temporary naively says that he translated “all the books 
of the Scripture with the exception of the books of Kings, 
which he omitted because they are a mere narrative of 
military exploits, and the Gothic tribes were especially fond 
of war.” 

A Slavonic translation was made in the early centuries 
for the Slavic peoples, particularly the Bulgars. For the 
Armenian communities of Asia Minor a version of the Bible 
seems to have been made in the fifth century. Among the 
Christians of Syria and Egypt who were overwhelmed by 
the Arab wave of conquest in the seventh century, there 
appeared translations of the Scriptures into Arabic. It will 
be noticed that in these instances the effort was made either 
to supply a Jewish or Christian community with the Scrip¬ 
tures for purposes of worship and study or to provide the 
material for missionary extension of the Christian faith. 

Similar activities have produced the hundreds of versions 
of the Scriptures now available for Christian education in 
all the lands to which the gospel has been carried. One of 
the most remarkable collections of books in the world is 
the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Hardly 
less interesting is that of the American Bible Society. There 
are gathered copies of all the attainable versions of the Scrip¬ 
tures since printing was invented, and many manuscript 
editions as well. There are books of the curious and 
fascinating tongues to which only specialists have access. 
There are the copies of the Old and New Testaments such 
as one sees on the shelves of the Bible dispensaries in Tokyo, 

— 269 — 






The Bible Through the Centuries 


Shanghai, Singapore, Rangoon, Bombay, Colombo, Cairo 
and Constantinople. There are the Bibles which have had 
romantic and fateful personal histories, as the possessions 
of soldiers, sailors, explorers and adventurers in various parts 
of the world, Bibles with bullet holes and saber thrusts, 
Bibles stained with the blood of missionary martyrs, and 
Bibles blotted with the red ochre of official censors. And 
besides, there are the quaint and curious Bibles in the early 
forms of our own speech; Bibles representing all the stages 
of our English Scripture; Bibles with grotesque errors, like 
the “ Wicked Bible,’’ the “ Breeches Bible,” and others 
whose printers were punished for their mistakes. 

And that leads naturally to the story of the Bible in 
our own mother tongue. This story is illustrative of what 
has been done or must be done in every language in which 
the Scriptures are translated. Language is a fluid thing. 
It does not remain fixed for a day. There is therefore con¬ 
stant need of retranslation and revision lest the Word of 
God be left in archaic and outworn form. Fifty dictionaries 
of the English language have been issued since the King 
James Version of the Bible made its appearance in 1611. 
And if the ceaseless labor of Bible translation and revision 
has been the price of the measure of biblical knowledge 
we possess, not less essential has been the process in all other 
lands where biblical studies are to be kept fresh and timely. 
A similar future of splendid effort awaits the growing 
Christian communities in the non-Christian world where 
the first partial or imperfect versions of the Scriptures are 
now appearing. 

Two impressive names gather to themselves the values 


— 270-“ 




Translations and Revisions of the Bible 


of the story of the English Bible. Of all the work which 
preceded the art of printing, John Wyclif is the common de¬ 
nominator, and of that which has taken form since, William 
Tyndale is the representative. 

In 597 a.d. the missionary Augustine landed in Kent on 
the southern shore of Britain. His preaching was not the 
first Christian message that Britain had heard, for from 
the second century there had been confessors of the faith. 
But from his day the growth had been rapid. Yet education 
was rare and the need of copies of the Scriptures was little 
felt. Caedmon of Whitby set some of the stories of the 
Bible into poetic paraphrase as early as 670 a.d. A little 
later, about 700 a.d., Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, prepared 
a version of the Psalms, partly in prose and partly in verse. 
The best known Christian scholar of that age was Bede, a 
monk of Yarrow on the Tyne, who died in 735 a.d. The 
last book of his version to be translated was the Fourth 
Gospel, and he finished it in the closing hours of his life. 

King Alfred of England, justly called the Great (849- 
901 a.d.), did much to revive the Christian religion in the 
realm. He translated portions of the Scriptures into the ver¬ 
nacular, particularly the Psalms. He prefixed to the laws 
of the kingdom a version of the Ten Commandments 
and parts of Exodus. The earliest known appearance of 
the Gospels in English was a paraphrase by a priest named 
Aldred, who about 950 wrote it between the lines of a 
Latin copy of the Gospels. Aelfric of Peterborough about 
1000 made a copy of the Gospels, and later added several 
books of the Old Testament as well as Judith and the 
Maccabees from the Apocrypha. 


— 271 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Soon afterward William the Conqueror came with his 
Normans to crush the Saxons. The battle of Hastings in 
1066 was the beginning of a total change in language, man¬ 
ners ^nd customs. Little was done to promote Bible trans¬ 
lation in the first centuries of Norman rule, but two or three 
versions of the Psalms in the new language served to make 
it familiar and acceptable. 

Out of the stormy period which prevailed in England 
from the Conquest till the Reformation there rises the im¬ 
pressive figure of John Wyclif. He was an Oxford man, a 
scholar of distinction, and one of the “ morning stars ” of 
the new era of enlightenment and religious reform. They 
were restless times in which he lived. Political and social 
troubles made the age of Richard II memorable. Wat 
Tyler’s rebellion was a sign of the times. Famine and 
plague were frequent. Chaucer was singing the first songs 
of English poetry. Men were eager for a better order, but 
church and state were unawakened. 

Wyclif saw that one of the greatest needs of the hour 
was a Bible that the people could use. He therefore planned 
a translation of the entire Latin Vulgate into the English 
tongue, which was now settling itself into a combination of 
the older Saxon and Norman-French which had come in at 
the Conquest. This translation appeared about 1382, and 
was soon popularized by the travelling preachers whom 
Wyclif organized and sent out through the country. 
They were known as “ Lollards,” and performed a 
valuable service in awakening the public mind on religious 
themes. 

Soon afterward, as early as 1388, a revision of Wyclif’s 


— 272 — 





Translations and Revisions of the Bible 


Bible appeared, probably the work of his friend and pupil, 
John Purvey. This became more popular than Wyclif’s 
own work and largely superseded it. On the foundation 
of biblical knowledge laid by these versions of the Scriptures 
the English reformation was built. It must be kept in mind 
that as yet no printed copies of the Word of God had ap¬ 
peared. All the Bibles were in manuscript form, and there¬ 
fore expensive. More than this, the practice of reading the 
Bible was under the ban of the state. Men were fined for 
possessing or distributing any part of the Scriptures, and 
even worse penalties were at times inflicted. This was the 
usual way of suppressing heresies. 

About a hundred years after the death of Wyclif, whose 
bones were dug up and burned as a mark of royal con¬ 
demnation of the reforms he set going, William Tyndale 
was born in 1484. In the meantime Gutenberg in 1455 had 
printed from movable types the first complete Latin Bible, 
and the study of Hebrew and Greek had made great ad¬ 
vances under the influence of the Revival of Learning. The 
printing press, which began its work in Germany in 1454, 
was brought by Caxton into England in 1470. Tyndale 
studied both at Oxford and Cambridge and was so deeply 
stirred by the intellectual and religious needs of the time 
that his rejoinder to a churchman of his day has become 
classic, “ If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause 
a boy that driveth a plow shall know more of the Scriptures 
than thou doest.” 

Compelled to seek refuge in flight from England he 
went to Germany, and with the help of friends published 
two editions of the New Testament in 1525, which were 


— 273 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


smuggled into England and met instant acceptance. Henry 
VIII used every effort to suppress this work, and many 
copies were publicly burned. But its popularity increased 
with the efforts made to suppress it. Tyndale himself, still 
in exile, in 1530 set about the completion of this work 
by the translation of the Old Testament, which however 
he did not live to finish. For in 1536, in spite of all the 
efforts of his friends to keep him safe in his retreat in 
Antwerp, he was betrayed into the hands of imperial officers, 
tried, condemned, strangled and burned. 

The last words of Tyndale were, “ Lord, open the king 
of England’s eyes.” Miles Coverdale, the next in the illus¬ 
trious list of translators, did much to realize the martyr’s 
prayer. He published the first complete Bible in the English 
language about 1535. It was printed on the continent but 
seems to have won the favor of the authorities including 
the king, Thomas Cromwell and Bishop Cranmer. From 
this time onward Bible translation and publication became 
the order of the day. A dozen versions of the Scriptures 
were issued between Coverdale’s and the Authorized Ver¬ 
sion in 1611. The work of Wyclif and Tyndale came to 
its fruition. 

A friend and co-worker of Tyndale’s, John Rogers, 
brought out the so-called “ Matthew’s Bible ” in 1537. This 
was really the continuation of the work of Tyndale and 
Coverdale, and yet it received the sanction of Henry VIII 
within a year after Tyndale’s martyrdom. In 1539 Cover- 
dale published a revision of his Bible which because of its 
larger and more sumptuous form was called “The Great 
Bible.” Several editions of this book were published and 


— 274 — 






Translations and Revisions of the Bible 


it was scattered widely among the churches of England 
for the uses of public worship. 

In the reign of Mary, the Roman Catholic daughter 
of Henry, many of the reformers were compelled to take 
refuge on the continent. A company of these in Switzer¬ 
land prepared a revision of the Scriptures which was known 
as the “ Geneva Bible,” and became very popular. This 
was completed in 1560. In 1563 Archbishop Parker began 
with the aid of other churchmen a revision of the Great 
Bible. This appeared under the title of the Bishops’ Bible 
and soon superseded the other work in the usage of the 
Established Church. About the same period other workers 
than the Geneva exiles produced upon the continent a 
Bible in English for Roman Catholics. It originated in the 
schools of Douai and Rheims successively and was intended 
to counteract the influence of the Geneva Version. It ap¬ 
peared in 1609 and was based naturally upon the Vulgate 
of St. Jerome. 

King James I, the successor of Queen Elizabeth, came 
to the English throne in 1603. The various editions of the 
Scriptures which had taken form since the days of Wyclif, 
differing as they did in many features and based upon many 
different sources, demanded the preparation of a standard 
English edition of the Bible. In 1611 a royal commission 
representing the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and 
the City of London completed the work which has for the 
past three centuries been known as the Authorized or King 
James Version. It represented the best scholarship of the 
time. Its stately and beautiful literary style has made it 
an unfailing source of satisfaction to the English-speaking 


— 275 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


world. Although its reception into popular favor was slow, 
it won its way and has remained until modern times the 
familiar and cherished version of the Bible. 

But it is a far call from 1611 to the present. The 
changes which have come over the English language have 
been revolutionary. Words do not now mean what they 
did in the reign of King James. More than this, much 
new material for the correction and interpretation of the 
original texts of the Bible has come to hand through the 
discovery of other texts and versions than those formerly 
known. In addition there is the light thrown upon the 
Bible by archaeological science which has proved of great 
value. Textual and literary criticism have made their con¬ 
tributions to the study of the Book. A new edition of the 
Bible became a necessity. The publication of numerous 
private versions like that of Rotherham added force to this 
demand. 

In 1870 a beginning was made by the organization of 
two commissions, one of English scholars and one of 
Americans. The work was prosecuted with diligence until 
in 1881 the Revised New Testament was published. On 
the morning of May 20th of that year the entire New Testa¬ 
ment cabled from London was printed in the New York 
Herald, and two days later it appeared entire in the Chicago 
Tribune and the Chicago Times. Three years later the 
Revised Old Testament appeared, the work of these two 
commissions. 

In various points the judgment of the English revisers 
differed from that of the American group. It was therefore 
arranged that the variant readings of the latter should appear 

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Translations and Revisions of the Bible 


in an appendix, and that after the expiration of the copyright 
period of fourteen years an edition should be issued giving 
the American readings in the text itself. During the years 
that followed the American committee continued its labors 
in preparation for the publication of the American edition. 
But just before the expiration of the time limit set, the 
Oxford and Cambridge presses published a so-called Ameri¬ 
can Revised Version giving in the text the readings of the 
American committee printed in the appendix of the English 
version fourteen years earlier. 

This action was regarded as unwarranted by the Amer¬ 
ican committee as it failed entirely to represent the status 
of biblical scholarship in 1899. Accordingly in 1901 the 
American committee published the American Standard 
Bible under the imprint of Thomas Nelson and Sons of 
New York. This is the latest and by far the best of the 
Revised Versions, which have in informed circles of Bible 
study largely displaced the archaic readings of the King 
James Version. There are to be sure many people who 
still cling to that text because of its undoubted literary qual¬ 
ities. They are apparently less concerned to have a com¬ 
petent translation of the Bible than to enjoy the charm of 
a familiar rendering. It is as if one should prefer the un¬ 
doubtedly attractive Fitzgerald version of the Rubaiyat to 
one of less poetic merit but more faithful to the original 
Omar. The choice is between a pleasing and well-known 
rendering of the Scripture and an authentic and trustworthy 
translation of the original. 

Many other versions have appeared in recent years. 
The present age is almost as prolific in the production of 


— 277 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


editions of the Bible as was the sixteenth century. In addi¬ 
tion to the more or less official revised versions, numerous 
attempts have been made to render the Bible more intelligi¬ 
ble by means of modern forms of speech or such arrange¬ 
ments of the text as serve to illustrate its literary features. Of 
the latter class the best illustration is the “ Modern Reader’s 
Bible,” edited by the late Professor R. G. Moulton. It presents 
the text of the English Revised Version in such literary 
form as to make clear the author’s conception of the various 
types of biblical writing. It has the added value of being 
printed in attractive individual volumes. 

The modern speech editions of the Scriptures have be¬ 
come numerous and popular during recent years. They in¬ 
clude the Twentieth Century New Testament, Weymouth’s, 
Ballentine’s, Moffatt’s and Goodspeed’s New Testaments, 
Mrs. Montgomery’s version of the Gospels, and more re¬ 
cently Moffatt’s Modern Speech Old Testament, and the 
American translation of the Old Testament by Professor 
J. M. Powis Smith and three colleagues. These are only 
a few of the many versions of the Scriptures issued during 
the past decade, which offer themselves as valuable aids to 
the interpretation of the Bible. Nor should one omit the 
version of the Scriptures published by the Roman Catholic 
Church for the use of its members, and that of the Old 
Testament issued by the Jewish Publication Society. 


— 278 — 




XVII 

THE INSPIRATION AND AUTHORITY 
OF THE BIBLE 

Most of the holy books of the various faiths claim some 
sort of inspiration and authority. This is true of the Vedic 
hymns, the laws of Hammurabi, the Avesta, the Pitikas, the 
Granth, the holy book of the Sikhs, and the Koran. In 
each of the great religions there has been in the hearts of 
the worshipers the conviction that the literature produced in 
the atmosphere of the deity or leader they revere is divine. 
Nor should there be any doubt of this fact on the part of 
any discerning and reverent soul. God speaks to man by 
divers portions and in various ways, through many teachers 
and in many writings. None of the sacred books that have 
lifted any part of the race to new altitudes of thinking and 
conduct has lacked something of the Spirit of God. But 
such phrases as one may with complete assurance apply to 
these literatures fall short of a proper and satisfying char¬ 
acterization of the Bible. 

What is meant, then, by this term as it is used of the 
Old Testament and the New ? And what are the arguments 
advanced to assert and defend that claim? The most com¬ 
mon reasons presented for the inspiration of the Bible are 
these: 

We of the Christian nations have inherited our belief in 
its inspiration. Our ancestors have accepted this view with- 


— 279 — 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


out questioning, and to us it has come with the sanction of 
their lives. 

Again, the church has through all its history affirmed 
the inspired character of the Scriptures. To those who 
accept the authority of the church, of whatever order, this 
is a sufficient guarantee. 

Once more, the Bible claims its own inspiration. The 
words of 2 Timothy 3:16 are classic: “Every Scripture in¬ 
spired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.” 
In the closing book of the New Testament are found these 
solemn words: “ I testify unto every man that heareth the 
words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add 
unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are 
written in this book. And if any man shall take away from 
the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take 
away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, 
which are written in this book.” 1 

Further, there is a certain self-attesting quality in the 
books themselves. When the Bible, rightly understood, 
makes its appeal to mind and heart it requires no further 
validation. Its message comes with a sense of urgency pos¬ 
sessed by no other literature known to the race. 

These are the most important arguments presented in 
defense of the doctrine of inspiration. There are others that 
might be mentioned, but they are all in some manner re¬ 
lated to these or included in them. Probably they will make 
differing appeals to different minds. 

The argument from the faith of our fathers has the 

1 Rev. zz:i8, 19. 

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The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


right to serious consideration. It is a truth past all doubting 
that much of the heroism, steadfastness and virtue of the 
Christian generations behind us was due to the faith the 
fathers had in the Bible and its inspiration as the Word of 
God. Lacking that confidence life would have seemed little 
worth to them. Our age has learned to revise many of their 
opinions and discredit many of their beliefs. The world in 
which we live is a wider, freer world. Many of the little 
systems of the past — political, social, religious — have had 
their day and ceased to be. But there was something majestic 
and enduring about the Christian faith and character of 
those grand men of the past that we may well covet. Is 
this not sufficient to validate their view of the Scriptures? 
Some will think it is, but in the changing order of our time 
a more certain ground is needed. Men must have better 
grounds of assurance than the faith of other men, even 
such men as we have known and revered. 

Still less satisfactory is the argument from church au¬ 
thority. To the Roman Catholic or the adherent of the 
Greek Orthodox Church it might be sufficient. Even to a 
Protestant it is not without deep significance that the re¬ 
ligious body to which he belongs has through the years 
maintained a stout and unwavering faith in the inspiration 
of the Bible. But it must not be forgotten that the Roman 
Church which made the first formal and official declaration 
of the inspired and canonical nature of the Scriptures was 
the very organization that through the long years did most 
to keep the Bible out of the hands of the people. After 
due allowance has been made for Protestant overstatement 
on this theme, it must be conceded that the Roman Church 


— 281 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


has never been favorable to popular use of the Bible, and 
that it is only today repairing the mistake it made in other 
centuries by giving a version of the Scriptures to its people. 
Why should the book have been so long withheld if it was 
inspired of God ? 

At first glance the argument from the statements of 
the Bible itself seems convincing. What more could one*' 
wish than the reference of an apostolic writer, whether Paul 
or another, to “ all Scriptures given by inspiration of God ? ” 
But a moment’s study of the text shows that the writer could 
have had in mind at best only the Old Testament, the only 
Scriptures the early Christians knew; unless, as seems not 
improbable, the term as used in his day included also the 
apocryphal books. And as to the strong words of the writer 
of Revelation, no one would assert that they refer to more 
than that single document; for in his day there could have 
been no collection of New Testament books. So far, there¬ 
fore, as validation for the Bible is to be sought in its own 
words, the argument lacks the essential element of appli¬ 
cation to the books in which the unique quality of inspiration 
is most in evidence — the great messages of the New Testa¬ 
ment. Moreover, if the inspiration of a work is to rest 
upon its claim for itself, then the Koran should far out¬ 
rank the Bible. It is apparent that one must look elsewhere 
for the real grounds of certainty. 

The last of the arguments above named goes much 
further toward an adequate statement than any of the others. 

It may seem at first that it is the least definite of the four 
reasons urged. Probably this is true. Certain it is that the in¬ 
spiration of the Bible eludes exact definition precisely be- 


— 282 — 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


cause it differs from any quality that bears that name in any 
other literature or product of human genius. But it is not 
without reason that one may urge the force of the appeal 
which the Scriptures make on their own behalf to those 
who give them the attention which they demand. They 
make real and urgent claim to reverence and obedience. 
They bring near to the human soul the sanctions of the 
divine life and the realities of spiritual experience. They are 
self-attesting, because their demonstration of their unique¬ 
ness is more convincing than any arguments the theologian 
can frame in their behalf. 

If it were left to human choice to prescribe the character 
of a book that should serve as the supreme religious literature 
of the race, the fullest embodiment in literary form of the 
divine ideal, what would such a book be, and what would 
it be proper to expect of it? At first thought it seems very 
easy to describe its qualities. For example, it should be 
written by the hand of God, or by some group of men 
particularly prepared for their task by divine selection and 
supernatural endowments. The book thus produced should 
be a clear and unvarying record of the divine mind, with 
no suggestion of mistake in matters of fact, norms of con¬ 
duct, or forms of expression. Further than this, its trans¬ 
mission to the present time, both in copy and translation, 
should be faithful and inerrant, for there would be little 
value in an originally perfect document that was marred in 
the process of delivery to the world of today. Such, one 
would suppose, would be the nature of a satisfactory Bible, 
to which one might with assurance attach the title of the 
Word of God. 


— 283 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Yet nothing is clearer than the fact that we have no 
such book as that. Furthermore, no such book has ever 
been known. The claims the Jews made for the five books 
of Moses amounted almost to that, and the same is true of 
the Mohammedan assertions regarding the Koran, and of 
certain other religious groups in behalf of their particular 
scriptures. But no such claim can be maintained for a 
moment in the presence of the obvious facts. The Bible 
makes no demand to be considered a superhuman oracular 
volume. It possesses the characteristics of its various writers. 
Each speaks in his own manner. It would be impossible to 
attribute a sermon of Isaiah’s to Jeremiah, or a Pauline 
epistle to Luke. 

This is one of the chief reasons why the doctrine of 
verbal inspiration has been discarded as incapable of proof 
and incompatible with the evident facts. If the divine mind 
dictated to the writers of the Scriptures the substance and 
form of the writings, there could not be the individuality 
that characterizes these documents. There is a striking unity 
of purpose disclosed in them; but their style, vocabulary and 
point of view are as various as their names. Each writer 
speaks out of his own experience, and uses his own particular 
equipment of knowledge and skill. Whatever definition 
of inspiration is constructed must include these facts. 

Nor were the writers of the Bible safeguarded super- 
naturally or in any other manner from the usual historical 
and scientific errors to which the men of their age were 
liable. Their work is not a textbook on either of these 
subjects. They spoke of events of the past as they under¬ 
stood them. They referred to the facts of nature as they 

— 284 — 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


were known in their day. But the themes with which they 
were concerned were not in these areas. They used events 
merely as illustrations of God’s purposes for the race, but 
the truth they were interested to affirm was of vastly greater 
import than any illustration by which they sought to en¬ 
force it. 

In the opening chapters of the book of Genesis there 
are two separate and varying narratives of creation. They 
do not agree with each other, nor do either of them agree 
with what scientists would now regard as a satisfactory 
description of the origin of things. Yet both teach the truth 
that at the beginning, whenever and whatever it was, God 
was the Creator, and man was the climax of the process. 
The men who put these two varying accounts into the same 
book were not unaware of their differences, but they found 
in them moral and religious values which made their di¬ 
vergences negligible. The Old Testament and the New 
exhibit many such phenomena. Whatever doctrine of in¬ 
spiration is framed must be hospitable to facts like these. 

The Bible is not a book whose ethical teachings are 
all of the same type or value. It discloses the depths to 
which human nature can at times descend and out of which 
it must be lifted. The moral levels of each generation as 
set down in the Old Testament were subject to the criticism 
and correction of a later age. A law is not final, a custom 
is not praiseworthy, merely because it is found in the Bible. 
It may be cited for correction, or as an illustration of crude 
and discarded usage. Such facts must be included in the 
definition of inspiration. 

The Bible is not a book whose main purpose is the 
-285- 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


chronicling either of miracle or fulfilled prediction. Miracle 
there is when properly defined, and prophecy of a majestic 
and compelling sort. But these are not the fundamental 
elements of the book. In fact, every miracle and every 
prediction could be eliminated from the Scripture, and its 
supreme values would not be disturbed. Something would 
be lost, it is true, and we prefer the books as they are, when 
rightly interpreted. But their purpose lies on higher levels 
than these phases, however interesting they may be. And 
any definition of inspiration we may adopt must meet this 
test. 

The Bible discloses certain features in virtue of which 
we have a right to call it inspired. It is a collection of books 
produced by men living in the current of the greatest re¬ 
ligious movement known to history. It was a movement 
with small beginnings, but with gradually expanding force. 
It began in the tribal experiences of a small group of people 
living in “ the least of all lands,” and culminated in the 
supreme life of the ages, and the most vital and pervasive 
religious institution ever known. 

The Bible is a competent record of that movement, and 
it presents graphic and convincing portraits of some of those 
forceful personages who contributed to the unique religious 
education thus organized. In the lives of those men and 
in the history which they helped to make God seems to 
have been present as in no other experiences of the past. 
That was the singular quality of Israel’s life. It was no 
wilful and capricious selection of a favored race. It was 
the emergence of the best available instrument for a great 
purpose. That purpose manifests itself in the documents 


-286- 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


which record that experience, and this quality in the 
documents, for want of a better term, we name inspiration. 

The Bible is the collection of books in which more 
evidently than in any other literature there are discovered 
the profoundest truths of religion. There are pictured the 
lives of men like Abraham and Moses, who made sure of 
the reality of God; men like Amos and Isaiah who dis¬ 
covered and declared God’s world-ruling sovereignty; men 
who like Hosea and Jeremiah penetrated the secret of the 
love of God even for the most unworthy; and One there was 
who knew the possibility and preciousness of communion 
with God, and set the world in a way to a transfiguration of 
life by the discovery. 

In this book are found the personalities most worthy 
of reverence. In loyalty to ideals, in the possession of broad¬ 
ening faith and deeper insight, in the appreciation of the 
supreme religious values, such men as Samuel, David, Micah, 
Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Paul and Peter take rank as the 
pioneers in the vanguard of the world’s progress toward the 
life of the spirit. 

The Bible reveals to us in glowing hope and partial 
realization that kingdom of God, that community of re¬ 
deemed souls and redemptive forces of which Jesus was 
always speaking. By its help we are able to find our way 
to God. By its direction we discern his will for us as the 
most worthful program of life. By the suggestions it offers 
and the sources of power it reveals we discover that we can 
actually do his will and fulfill his purposes. By the study 
of this book redemption, atonement, the life of trust, the 
glory of rewarding service, and the deepening assurance of 

— 287 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the life eternal are brought within the circle of personal 
possession. Such values as these are not to be found in like 
degree in any other literature. And the quality which dis¬ 
closes them in such telling manner we may call inspiration. 

When the demand is made for a more definite and com¬ 
pact description of this strange quality, one has to respond 
that it is not to be compressed into any neat and convenient 
form. It would be easy to define the sort of inspiration the 
Jewish rabbis affirmed of their Torah, but that is too formal 
and mechanical to satisfy. It would be equally simple a 
process to apply the usual categories of literary and artistic 
passion to the books before us. But this is too pale a figure 
to meet the need. The most competent statement that can 
be made is that the inspiration of the Bible is the total spirit 
and power it reveals. In the last issue one means by its in¬ 
spiration exactly those marks of uniqueness and urgency 
which it exhibits and which make it incomparably greater 
than any other book in the world. 

The wonder is that the Bible shares with other books 
so many of their marks of human workmanship and limita¬ 
tion, and yet possesses a spirit that sets it in a place apart 
from all the rest. It is this which baffles definition, and yet 
is so unescapable a quality of the Scripture. The proof 
that the book is inspired is its power to inspire. It is the 
sum of the elements thus made evident to the reflective 
mind that warrants one in speaking of the Bible as the 
Word of God, and believing in its enduring value. It is 
in recognition of these unique qualities that one may apply 
to the Scripture as a whole the words of the Master en¬ 
graved as a text in the walls of the building of the British 


-288 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


and Foreign Bible Society, “ Heaven and earth shall pass 
away, but my word shall not pass away.” 

Viewed from certain points of approach, it is unfor¬ 
tunate that the Bible has been called the Word of God. 
The intelligent student finds no difficulty in this title, for 
he accepts it in the light of all the facts freely spread upon 
its pages. In comparison with any other of the world’s 
sacred books he finds that it contains in a unique degree 
the message of God to the race. But to one who is unwilling 
or unable to pay the price of a competent inquiry into the 
nature of the book, the title is misleading. It implies far 
more than the Bible is prepared to guarantee. For even a 
casual reading of the documents that make up this unique 
collection shows that they were not written by God, nor 
even by men who were speaking with supernatural and in- 
errant knowledge of God’s will. No error has ever resulted 
in greater discredit to the Scriptures or injury to Christianity 
than that of attributing to the Bible such a miraculous origin 
and nature as to make it an infallible standard of morals and 
religion. That it contains the word of God in a sense in 
which that expression can be used of no other book is true. 
But its finality and authority do not reside in all of its utter¬ 
ances, but in those great characters and messages which are 
easily discerned as the mountain peaks of its contents. Such 
portions are worthy to be called the Word of God to man. 

Various opinions have been held as to the seat of au¬ 
thority in religion. By some it is placed in the church. 
It is not to be doubted that there is a certain moral author¬ 
ity in an organization so revered and efficient as the 
church of Christ in the world. But those who hold this 

— 289 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


view are usually at pains to insist that the definition of the 
church that may thus be regarded as possessing this special 
authority is to be limited to the organization to which they 
happen to belong. No advocate of the supreme right of the 
Christian organization to the place of control would concede 
that authority to the universal church. It is rather some 
particular church that he has in mind. 

Others have affirmed that the seat of authority is to be 
found in the Bible. This was particularly the contention 
of the later reformers, who felt the need of some authority 
to oppose to the Roman Catholic doctrine of the infallible 
church. This led, as has been shown, to fantastic claims 
for the Bible, such as it never made for itself, nor was pre¬ 
pared to support. The traditional authorships of the Bible 
were insisted upon as essential to its validity. Some of the 
theologians almost outdid the rabbinical apologists in their 
extravagant claims for the Mosaic authorship of the Penta¬ 
teuch. One of their sayings was, “ He who says that Moses 
wrote even one verse of his own knowledge is a denier and 
despiser of the Word of God.” Here the doctrine of in¬ 
spiration and authority was carried to the limits of the 
grotesque. Hardly less fantastic was the claim of some of 
the post-reformation divines regarding the inerrant char¬ 
acter of the text of Scripture. Dr. John Owen boldly asserted 
that the vowel points of the Hebrew text of the Old Testa¬ 
ment were inspired. This would be equal to the insistence 
that the versification, paragraphing and punctuation of our 
English Bible were determined in heaven. 

The Bible as a whole is not an ultimate authority to 
one who thoughtfully studies it. That is, it cannot be taken 

— 290 — 





The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


as inerrant and final in all its parts. The command of 
Samuel to Saul to exterminate the Amalekites would not 
be regarded by anyone as a proper order for our age. The 
conduct of David in war would be reprehensible in the 
thought of our generation, just as it was to the later prophets 
of Israel. The toleration of polygamy, slavery and blood 
revenge, which were wholly within the circle of permitted 
conduct in an earlier time, would be impossible now. In 
other words, the Bible is not an authority to us on all the 
questions with which it deals. The anger of Paul at the 
high priest who ordered him smitten in court, and his advice 
to Timothy about taking a little wine, we do not accept as 
examples for ourselves, though we see the naturalness of 
the manner in which they are mentioned. 

Those who accept the Bible as the holiest and most 
authoritative book we possess always reserve the right to 
discriminate between those utterances which justify them¬ 
selves to the conscience and intelligence and those which 
fail to do so. It is inevitable that one who studies the Scrip¬ 
tures should bring every statement and precept to the bar 
of his own sense of right, and judge it by that standard. 
We have to confess that even in the New Testament the 
same discrimination is exercised by every thoughtful reader. 
The rabbinical arguments of Paul in the Epistle to the 
Galatians make no such appeal to us as does his doctrine 
of justification by faith. The summary punishment of 
Ananias and his wife leaves us doubtful and questioning, 
while the message of Peter to Cornelius and his household 
meets our highest approval. And even in the life of Jesus 
the same differences appear. So difficult are the narratives 


— 291 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


of the demons sent into the swine and the cursed fig tree 
that many who hold without hesitance to the inspiration 
and authority of the Book wonder if there has not been 
some error in the record at these points. They seem in¬ 
consistent with the other things we are told concerning our 
Lord. This makes it evident that the authority which we 
recognize as truly present in the biblical record does not 
inhere in the Book as such, nor in any particular portion of 
it. But rather it is found in the appeal which the Scripture 
as a whole makes to the moral sense within humanity, and 
in particular the urgency of the appeal made by certain parts 
of the record, notably the Gospels and the Pauline epistles. 

In the recognition of this fact is found the reason for 
that controlling influence which the Bible, and particularly 
the New Testament, has exercised upon the mind and con¬ 
science of the world through the centuries. The Book asks 
nothing for itself in the way of sovereignty over the minds 
of men. But it exercises that power by the sheer force of its 
appeal to all that is best within them. Its authority is not 
formal and arbitrary. It consists rather in the outreaching 
of the spirit of God in the men who wrote its various parts 
to the souls of those who study it. It is because the men 
who speak through the pages of the Bible find us at levels 
deeper than any other writers we know that they possess 
for us the element of authority. 

And the creation of a standard of right within the soul 
of the advancing generations is one of the achievements of 
the Bible. The only standard of right thinking and con¬ 
duct possessed by anyone is the result of his education in 
religion and morals. Barbarous peoples approve and prac- 


— 292 — 





The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


tice customs which are revolting to the moral sense of the 
enlightened because such practices are not inconsistent with 
the only standards of morals they possess. Their consciences 
are quite undisturbed. The people of ancient Israel saw 
nothing unusual or wrong in polygamy, slavery and cruel 
treatment of war prisoners. The teachings even of their 
noblest leaders in the early ages of their history did not 
disapprove such conduct. The authority of those teachers 
was hospitable to the manners of such books as Joshua and 
Judges. That authority does not reach and convince us 
today. And the very men who fqllowed those first moral 
leaders of the nation helped to correct those low standards 
of living. The prophets of one age denounced and forbade 
conduct like that of their predecessors. Through the cen¬ 
turies of history the advancing groups of those who were 
sensitive to the leadings of the divine Spirit pointed the up¬ 
ward way of justice, mercy and humility. And the con¬ 
summation of that process was reached in the life and teach¬ 
ings of our Lord. 

It is the record of this progress that the Bible presents. 
The great personalities of which it speaks make their ap¬ 
peal to the moral sense of the world at just the level they 
occupied. There are those today who find nothing ob¬ 
jectionable in the conduct of the patriarchs. They would 
be content with a social order in which customs like theirs 
could prevail. Polygamy is yet practiced in parts of the 
world and is justified on biblical grounds. For such justifi¬ 
cation of course its advocates have to go back to an age 
from which the enlightened portion of the race has made 
long departures. And it is the Bible itself which has been 


-293 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the chief instrument in that moral progress. To those who 
rightly understand this Book, by letting it offer its own 
explanation of its development and purpose, there is no 
longer the slightest authority found in it for polygamy. 
And the same thing may be said in reference to slavery, 
blood revenge, impurity, falsehood and every other evil 
thing. The Book through its noblest voices and most of all 
through the voice of Jesus has made the low and partial 
standards of the past increasingly unconvincing to those 
who have seen the larger vision of the kingdom of God. 

The authority of the Bible resides in its enlightening 
and compelling power, which lays upon the soul the im¬ 
peratives of pure and sacrificial living. It is not an authority 
which inheres in an institution or a book, but in the sense 
of rightness created within the soul by all gracious in¬ 
fluences, and chiefly by the Bible itself. The Book does not 
claim to be a carefully prepared manual of conduct. It 
refuses to accept responsibility for the claim that all of its 
utterances are rules to be followed. Rather it records the 
story of the most notable movement in history for the en¬ 
franchisement of the human soul from the bondage of 
ignorance, superstition, lust, hatred and pride, and it tells 
us something of the men who were leaders in that move¬ 
ment which found its full expression in Jesus Christ. It asks 
us to study the lives and ideals of these great souls, and make 
them, as far as they find us with their majestic appeal, our 
friends and examples. In some of them early in the move¬ 
ment one finds little to admire or imitate. Yet every 
one in the measure of his knowledge and power was a 
pioneer in the great adventure of making a new world. 


— 294 — 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


The life of Jesus, which is exhibited only in this litera¬ 
ture, is the climax of this process. We do not know very 
much about him as compared with that which we should 
like to know. All the records of his life would not fill an 
issue of the morning paper. Furthermore, the only records 
we have of his life come to us through the writings of men 
who did not themselves fully understand the character they 
were seeking to make known. They could only do the 
best they were able in making their contemporaries and 
those who should follow them comprehend something of 
that life that to them was past all language wonderful. In 
the final issue of facts it is that life which has become the 
authoritative norm of conduct for the race. Imperfectly 
presented as it is, and not fully understood either by its first 
interpreters or any of later time, the life of Jesus is in¬ 
creasingly the disclosure of the soul of God, the exhibition 
of a normal, perfect human character and the center of the 
world’s desire. 

The Book that can present a life like that, under what¬ 
ever limitations, is certain to have a unique note of authority 
for all who have the least sensitiveness to moral ideals. It 
finds us and holds us. It follows us through all the ways 
in which we try to find rest in our search for life abundant. 
It waits for us at the bypaths where we think to find another 
sort of good. It pursues us with swift insistent feet all the 
long day of life. It will not let us go. It is this divine and 
terrible authority which follows us with the whips and 
scourges of the eternal love, until we dash ourselves into 
the abysses of unreturning refusal, or take with gladness the 
cup of life from the hand of God. 


— 295 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


It is conceivable that we could have had a book of rules 
which would have been a final and infallible guide to con¬ 
duct. But the Bible is not that, though some men have 
so claimed. Others have sought to compile from its con¬ 
tents such an anthology of thinking and behavior. But this 
is futile. The first essential of character is the responsibility 
for a discriminating choice among the options offered by 
life. If someone could draw up for us such a schedule and 
guarantee us salvation on terms of compliance with it, there 
would be strong temptation to close with the proposal. So 
strong indeed that some who claim the right have offered 
just such a bargain in the name of the church. But sal¬ 
vation cannot be purchased upon any such cheap and easy 
terms. Salvation is character. Character can be gained only 
by the agony of deliberate and convinced choice, and the 
struggle to make that choice controlling in life. So in the 
end of the day, the authority of the Bible is just the appeal 
which it makes to men to close with the supreme opportunity, 
as Jesus did, and live his life after him. The authority of 
the Bible is the authority of the supreme Life of which it 
speaks. And linked with it are all the other forceful lives 
in that same group, in the measure in which they make to 
the reader the appeal of character and teaching. 

For this reason the authority of the Bible cannot be 
formal, arbitrary or capricious. It cannot consist in oracular 
words and phrases. It cannot inhere in rules of living. 
These all may have value, but the power of the Bible in 
human life lies in its ability to inspire in those whom it 
really reaches a principle of thought and life which makes 
them a law unto themselves. Out of the best that the 

— 296 — 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


prophets and apostles have spoken one may organize a norm 
of living which becomes compelling. To him the character 
and message of the Lord become final. He has in some 
competent measure the mind of Christ. Within the en¬ 
lightened and loyal soul itself there is set up a standard of 
ethics and religion to which the appeal of every decision 
must be referred. Into the creation of this standard many 
factors enter. But it must be confessed that the Bible is 
the most impressive. And in this fact, and the control which 
issues from it into the lives of the saints of all the years, lies 
its unique authority. 

The Bible has been the object of vicious assaults at 
various times from people who imagined that its frank dis¬ 
closure of the faults and sins of some of its characters carried 
along the implication of approval or at least of condonation. 
It is a most superficial reading of its pages that could warrant 
such judgment. The pictures of human society which it 
presents are true to the life. But they are never set down 
merely for the sake of the narrative, in the spirit of a re¬ 
porter who is seeking the sensational and scandalous. They 
have always a reason as they are portrayed in the pages of 
this Book. 

The Bible is an attempt to reproduce the social and 
religious ideals of various ages in primitive and later history. 
The sins of otherwise good men are told as warnings. The 
low morals of individuals and communities are reported 
with no love of the vile conditions described but with the 
purpose of showing the depths from which humanity has 
been lifted and is evermore being lifted by the grace of 
God. Just as the simple and crude conditions out of which 


— 297 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


some national hero has risen are described for the purpose 
of making more vivid and convincing the later greatness of 
the man, so the rough and brutal features of Old Testament 
times are recorded to set in clear contrast the results of 
prophetic ministry. 

Human history is in many places a tragic story of mis¬ 
take and misadventure, sometimes unconscious, the result 
of ignorance, and sometimes deliberate, the outcome of 
perverse and foolish impulse. No honest account of indi¬ 
vidual, tribal or national experiences is free from features 
of this nature. They could be glossed over or expurgated, 
but a frank and truthful treatment of history takes neither 
course. It sets them down for just the lesson they ought to 
teach. 

The Bible has also these features. It has the evidences 
of the immature and false ideas out of which it was the 
task of the spirit of God to lead the race. It has some 
terrible chapters, proofs of the depths to which humanity 
can fall. But no true picture can be drawn of the long and 
slow evolution of moral ideals without hints of the primitive 
life out of which escape was at last made. The Bible reveals 
with a frankness which is at once startling and undeniable 
the sins that war against the soul and the low standards of 
morals prevailing in ages when those sins were counted 
virtues. But no one with power to discriminate between 
childhood and maturity would betray himself into the dis¬ 
ingenuous assertion that all alike meet the approval of the 
Book. 

A volume that made any such impression upon its 
readers could not hold for a moment the place which the 

— 298 — 




The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible 


Bible has in the regard of the race. Its overwhelming vin¬ 
dication, its right to the world’s reverence, are found in its 
appeal to the intelligent and sensitive spirit, its illustrious 
history as the guide of those movements which are bringing 
in the new day, its ability to turn the current of history 
out of its former channels in the directions pointed out by 
the spirit of God, its power to' transform nations from 
savagery and superstition to intelligence and virtue, and its 
daily record of transfigured lives, the real “twice-born” 
men of our age. In such fruits its best defense will ever 
be found. And after all the superficial theories of its origin 
and nature have faded from remembrance, and all assaults 
upon its character have fallen by their own futility, it will 
still continue on its beneficent way, the enlightener of the 
nations, the record of the divine struggle in behalf of the 
soul of man, the authoritative literature of the holy life. 


299 — 




XVIII 

THE CONTINUING WORD 

The Bible is not all there is of the word of God. It is 
the most evident and tangible embodiment of that word, 
and the surest proof that the Eternal has manifested himself 
in human experience. Yet assurance is given by one of the 
writers of the Christian documents that God spoke to the 
fathers of Israel in various manners and at different times . 1 
And what he did in ancient times he has been continuing 
to do through the centuries. There is no closed circle of 
divine revelation. God is ever speaking to the race, through 
the stern lessons of history, through the mutations of human 
experience, and through the lives of choice and elect souls 
who perceive more fully than their fellows the vision of 
truth, and make it known. 

The word of God was disclosed to Israel in the measure 
of the capacity of that people to comprehend and interpret 
it. It came to complete manifestation, such as one life could 
offer, and one generation could comprehend, in the revela¬ 
tion of our Lord. It found expansion and illumination in 
the lives and messages of Jesus’ first interpreters and the 
Christian community which took form under the inspiration 
of his life. It has continued to spread through the ministries 
of the church and other groups that have taken seriously the 
divine message, and have endeavored to exemplify and dis- 

1 Heb. 1:1. 


— 300 — 


The Continuing Word 


close it to mankind. In a very true sense the church as well 
as the Bible has been the embodiment of the holy word. 
And in the final issue it is the individual believer who 
vindicates and illustrates the enduring and expanding 
truth. All history is the exemplification of this widening 
and deepening potency of the word of God. It cannot 
fail of its appointed purpose. It is destined to accomplish 
the divine pleasure, and prosper in the thing whereto it 
is sent. 

In the golden age of Greece, when Athens had attained 
almost the summit of her intellectual and artistic life, there 
fell a blight upon the city that threatened its eclipse. A 
deadly plague decimated its population; neighboring states, 
stirred to enmity by the splendor of Athenian achievements, 
ringed it about with hostile intent, and even the strong 
spirit of Pericles was daunted by the signs of disaster. In 
such a time he summoned the people to take heart again by 
pointing them to the spreading influence of Hellenic cul¬ 
ture through the islands and on the mainland of Attica, 
and insisted that even as the eyes of the goddess Athena, the 
patroness of the city, whose gold and ivory statue towered 
above the Acropolis, looked out across the lands, so the spirit 
of her people and her institutions was imperishable, a power 
that should bring again her glory and restore her supremacy. 
Her message to humanity could not fail. 

In the days of the great dispersion, after the king of 
Babylon had visited his wrath upon Jerusalem, and her 
people had found their way either by exile or escape to 
other lands, when the fortunes of the holy city seemed 
at their lowest, and few of her surviving citizens dared to 


— 301 — 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


hope for better days, there was lifted a voice of consolation 
and assurance. The prophet who lifted that voice we do not 
know. Like much of the ancient Hebrew writing, his mes¬ 
sage has come to us without a name. But it is gathered 
under the sheltering mantle of the great Isaiah of an earlier 
age, and is known to the modern reader as the oracle of 
Israel’s redemption, the work of the Second Isaiah. In 
thrilling words the seer pierces the gloom of the present 
depression, and announces in confident terms the gathering 
of the scattered refugees back to their homeland, and the 
re-establishment of the nation’s institutions. “ Comfort ye, 
comfort ye my people, saith your God,” is his key-note, and 
the certainty of the coming restoration of Judah is his con¬ 
fident augury. All the signs to be sure are unpropitious, 
and the days are filled with gloom. There is no king in 
Israel, and the search for leaders seems vain. The people 
are like grass, which springs up in the morning and in the 
evening is cut down and withers. But the prophet is un¬ 
dismayed. The promises of the Eternal are firm as the 
hills. The assurances of national survival given in the divine 
name through the generations cannot prove frustrate. “ The 
grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God 
abides forever.” 2 

With still greater faith in that unfailing word, a Chris¬ 
tian teacher of the first century fastened on that ancient 
oracle to strengthen the courage of scattered believers 
throughout the Graeco-Roman world. His was a different 
theme. To him the utterance signified was not so much 
the ancient divine promise to Israel, nor the assembled 

2 Isa. 40:8. 


— 302 — 




The Continuing Word 


writings of the classic Scriptures, but the vital, seminal, ex¬ 
panding and enduring word by which his disciples in the 
Christian mysteries had been reborn into the holy life. As 
compared with that disclosure of eternal purpose and power 
all other things were as the grass of the earth, and all human 
interests as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the 
flower falls, but the oracle of good tidings, the word of the 
Lord, abides forever . 3 

That universal revelation of the nature and will of 
the Highest was the element declared by Israel’s ancient 
priest-prophet, the Deuteronomist, to be indispensable to 
the life of man. In words quoted by our Lord in the days 
of his temptation he insisted that man does not live by bread 
alone, but by every forthputting, utterance, disclosure, mani¬ 
festation of the character of God . 4 It is the discovery of the 
divine nature and purpose that is the quest of every sensi¬ 
tive and inquiring spirit. It is the cry of the heart in all 
religions, and in varying degrees the answer is the voice 
of God. There is an unquenchable confidence in the mind 
of the race that at the heart of things there is One higher 
than the highest with whom we have to do, a power not 
ourselves that makes for righteousness, an intelligence that 
is responsive to the cry of faith. 

That this infinite life speaks to men has been the belief 
of the world from the dawn of religion. This is but natural. 
Man is the one voluble creature, and the fact that he is 
always talking inclines him to attribute the same speaking 
character to the being he worships. All the faiths of the 
nations have held this opinion. Their sacred scriptures are 

3 I Pet. 1:2.4, 2 - 5 » 4 Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4. 


—303— 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


largely believed to be the utterances of deity to prophetic 
souls who recorded them. And though much may be al¬ 
lowed to the loquacious disposition of men in their effort to 
interpret the Eternal, yet the well-nigh universal conscious¬ 
ness that there is an outflowing of the divine life, a disclosure 
of the meaning of the universe, of which due account may 
be taken, is not to be disproved or denied. Of that supreme 
unfolding of truth all who have receptive natures have 
been in some measure aware. Some, men of truly dis¬ 
cerning mind, have understood much. One there was 
who seems to have caught the full meaning of that 
mystery. 

The holy men who spoke in time past, whether they 
were prophets or apostles, whether they had in mind specific 
utterances of the Highest, or the gathering collection of 
revered documents, or the life-giving message of the gospel, 
were insistent that the divine word was vital, pervading, 
abiding. To be sure other things of which they spoke had 
the quality of endurance. Koheleth says of the earth that 
it abides forever, as contrasted with the generations that 
come and go. A psalmist says of Mount Zion that it cannot 
be removed, but abides forever. But some of them perceived 
that there are things that are more truly timeless and en¬ 
during, eternal in their essence, outlasting the hills rock- 
ribbed and ancient as the sun. Paul’s Psalm of Love affirms 
this fact when he declares that beyond all gifts and pos¬ 
sessions faith and hope and love endure. In some such 
sublime sense the holy word, the revelation of God, con¬ 
tinues. 

Not less is it vital, life-giving. That majestic figure of 
— 304 — 



The Continuing Word 


speech by which creation is described as taking place in 
obedience to the word of the Most High holds a deeper truth 
than the brief record discloses. The entire creative process, 
from the dim beginnings of this and every other world, has 
been the result of an age-long, indeed an ageless, forth- 
putting of the divine energy, an impartation of the divine 
life, such as Jesus described when he said, “ My Father has 
always worked, and I work.” Through all the long romance 
of the race, whether we call it evolution or give it any other 
name, it is a divine enterprise, and the outflowing, the in¬ 
fusing of the life of God through all the vast adventure, 
from saurian to saint, is just another illustration of the fact 
that no creature lives by bread alone, but by every outgiving 
of the life of God. That vital, germinal manifestation is 
the secret of every grade of being, and finds its climax 
at the highest level the creative process has yet attained, in 
that new order of men of whom the apostolic writer de¬ 
clared that they were “ born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but of incorruptible, by the word of God which lives and 
abides.” 

Still more impressive is the expansive, universal nature 
of this self-disclosure of the Eternal. It is world-wide, and 
so far as we know, as all-inclusive as the universe. It was 
natural for the Hebrew writers to magnify the office of their 
nation as the custodian of the divine favor, the race chosen 
above all others to enjoy the favor of heaven. Of the attain¬ 
ment of signal privilege and insight by some of the spiritual 
leaders of that people there is ample evidence. But the 
testimony of the most discerning of that order disclaims any 
such exclusiveness of divine favor for Israel, and insists with 


— 305 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Amos that if God made himself known in any selective 
manner to that people, the greater was their responsibility, 
the more evident their peril . 5 

Indeed the Second Isaiah set the type for a new and 
wider interpretation of the nature of God and the function 
of Israel. He declared that new patterns of the divine under¬ 
taking were appearing. Other people than the Hebrews 
were to be gathered under the divine protection. As he 
had given to all the breath of life, he would likewise give 
them the bestowments of grace. Whenever Israel is re¬ 
deemed, the heathen are to share in the blessing, for they 
are his children, the work of his hands. The holy task 
of the nation is the giving of light to the rest of the world. 
The Restorer of Jacob is also to be the leader and com¬ 
mander of the remnant of the peoples. Foreigners are in¬ 
terested onlookers at the drama of Israel’s humiliation and 
eventual glory. They are to be blessed with the same 
mercies promised to the house of Judah . 8 Malachi insists 
that all sincere worship offered to their gods by the heathen 
is accepted by Jahveh as offered to him . 7 The Son of Sirach 
says of the divine wisdom, “ I came forth from the mouth 
of the Most High, . . . and in every people I gat me a pos¬ 
session.” 8 That God is no respecter of persons, but that in 
every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness 
is acceptable to him, is the startling and revolutionary state¬ 
ment of the newly-enlightened Peter at the home of the 
Roman captain in Caesarea ; 9 and Paul and Barnabas in the 
gates of Lystra asserted that the living God had not left 

6 Amos 3:1; 6 Isa. 41:1-4; 49:6, etc; 7 Mai. 1:11; 8 Ecclus. 14:3, 6 ; 9 Acts 
10 : 34 > 35 - 


—306— 





The Continuing Word 


himself without witness among any people . 10 Surely and 
steadily that message reaches all humanity. It is the privi¬ 
lege and responsibility of all to carry it onward to the ends 
of the earth. Alike to those who accept and those who 
reject it comes the word and the obligation. As truly upon 
the pagan as upon the Christian rests the burden of the 
divine evangel. The only difference is that one of them 
has acknowledged the responsibility which the other still 
disclaims. The spirit and the bride say, Come. And he 
that heareth, let him say, Come . 11 

The marvel of the spiritual life is this outflowing, pene¬ 
trating, pervading, undepleted life of God, seeking every¬ 
where an entrance to the soul of man. For the word of 
God is the life of God. Like other terms in a vocabulary 
that breaks under the stress of truth which it cannot wholly 
express, our poor symbol, the very term “ word ” itself, runs 
about in nervous breathlessness trying to perform all the 
labor we impose upon it. And so out of desire to rid it of 
some of its load, the writers of the Scripture employed other 
phrases which mean the same thing. They spoke of the 
breath of God, the angel of God, the spirit of God, the face 
of God, as well as the word of God, and by all these devices 
they sought access to that central mystery of the divine 
being for which they had no adequate definition, any more 
than have we. Perhaps there was also in their usage a 
certain courteous reserve in their approach to the Infinite. 
They were setting a thin veil before their faces that they 
might not too rashly intrude into the intolerable glory of 
the holy presence. But of that presence they were over- 

10 Acts 14:15-17; 11 Rev. 21 : 17 . 


—307— 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


whelmingly aware, and they have searched the deeps of 
human speech to make it known. 

If the image of God employed by the moral leaders 
of other days is too anthropomorphic to satisfy the more 
scientific and philosophical age in which we live, at least 
it had the value of personality and relationship, and in some 
true measure satisfied the generations that were beginning 
to feel after God if haply they might find him. That quest 
is ceaseless and unwearied. Men have spoken of him by 
all the names graven on Akbar’s tomb, and yet there is 
no approach to finality of characterization. This is both 
the despair and the stimulus of all religious thinking. The 
idea is immeasurable, not to be shut up in any definition. 
Yet to the aware spirit it is the truest reality. In this it 
differs from all the ethnic faiths. To Hinduism the one 
reality is the Brahmin, the twice-born, the wearer of the 
sacred cord. All else is maya, illusion. In Buddhism it is 
the unchanging calm of Nirvana, symbolized by the motion¬ 
less and meditating Dai-butzu. To the Christian the great 
reality is God, pictured in many forms and fashions to the 
fathers by the prophets, but in the end of the days revealed 
in a Son. And therefore intimate, immanent, precious, of 
whom one may say with assured confidence: 

“ Thou life within my life, than self more near, 

Thou veiled Presence, infinitely clear; 

From all illusive shows of sense I flee 
To find my center and my rest in Thee.” 

It is of this Being, the Father-God, the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that a forceful writer of the past gen- 

— 308—- 






The Continuing Word 


eration has spoken in one of the truly great poems of the lan¬ 
guage: 

“ Whoso hath felt the spirit of the Highest, 

Cannot confound, or doubt him, or deny. 

Ay, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, 
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.” 12 

It is that authentic witness of the soul to the reality of 
the Divine that has been the joy of the mystics through all 
the years. And in due measure it is the experience of any 
who may be willing to pay the price demanded of the 
pilgrims of the inner way. 

Incredible therefore would be the doctrine that the dis¬ 
closure of the mind and will of the Eternal could be limited 
to one people or one age of human history. It is Lowell who 
insists: 

“ God is not dumb that he should speak no more. 

If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness, 

And find’st not Sinai, ’tis thy soul is poor. 

Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, 

And not on paper leaves, nor leaves of stone; 

Each age, each kindred adds a verse to it, 

Texts of despair and hope, of joy or moan. 

While swings the sea, while mists the mountains shroud, 
While thunders’ surges burst on cliff of cloud, 

Still at the prophets’ feet the nations sit.” 

The most impressive literary expression of this abiding, 
pervading word is the collection of documents we call the 

12 F. W. H. Myers, St. Paul . 


— 309 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


Bible. This body of writings is not the only sacred book. 
All the religions that have attained any maturity and 
reached cultural estate have developed a literature of less or 
greater value. Of such sacred books there are many, and 
none of them is without significance. But above them all 
the Bible lifts itself in majesty and authority. This is not 
because of any more imperious claim on its part, for there 
are other holy writings that exceed it in their assertions of 
inspirational origin. But this Book vindicates its right to 
the supreme position by its uniqueness and its peculiar moral 
and spiritual urgency. It is not a perfect work, either in 
historical, scientific or ethical matters. It is rather the record 
of two great movements in the development of religion. 
The Old and the New Testaments are the supreme chap¬ 
ters in the account of the world’s discovery of God. In the 
experience of the Hebrew people there appeared a group 
of men singularly sensitive to the moral and religious aspects 
of life. More than any others in the contemporary life of 
the world they were impressed with the imperatives of 
morality and holiness. 

Their order arose from crude beginnings. The prophets 
and priests of each generation preached and taught as they 
understood the divine will. They were not all of the same 
mind. As time went on they revised, corrected and reshaped 
the teachings of their predecessors. Some of their utterances 
were written down, probably after considerable periods of 
oral transmission. Much that they said perished in the 
mutations likely to befall any ancient writings. But some 
oracles survived, and all that thus remained was at length 
gathered into this collection which we know as the Old 




The Continuing Word 


Testament. It speaks with many voices and with varying 
authority, but it records the world’s most illustrious early 
adventure in the areas of faith in a God of justice and holi¬ 
ness. And while it neither claims nor exhibits inerrancy 
in fact or doctrine, it discloses the process of that gradual 
achievement of fellowship with the divine on the part of 
choice and elect souls, in virtue of which they spoke with 
an urgency and conviction which for want of a more ade¬ 
quate term we call inspiration. It is because of that fact 
and all its implications that one has the right to affirm that 
the Old Testament is in some true sense the word of God. 
If demand is made for a perfect document, inerrant and 
final, we have to confess that we do not possess it, nor did 
it ever have that character. But if the surviving literature 
of the most remarkable people of antiquity is sought, a 
people some of whom caught the vision of God and were 
thrilled by the disclosure of his purpose, then the Old Testa¬ 
ment has a valid claim to its unique position among the 
spiritual treasures of the race. 

Immeasurably more revealing and compelling is that 
later body of writings which we call the New Testament. 
This is inevitable. It is gathered about the person and 
ministry of our Lord. Its writers were his first interpreters. 
From him they drew their impulse and their ideals. They 
were haunted by the glory of his nature and the finality of 
his teachings. When he had left them they looked back 
upon his life with wistful longing for his return, and felt 
that his stay had been like that of a pilgrim who pitched his 
tent with them for a night and then vanished . 13 But he left 

13 John 1:14. 





The Bible Through the Centuries 


with them the ineradicable impress of the life of God, who 
was to him the supreme reality. And for that reason Jesus 
has evermore to his vast fellowship of believers the value of 
God, just as Buddha has to another great company. But 
the person of the Master is the historic embodiment of those 
ideals and forces which he proclaimed. In him the love, 
purity and righteousness of which the prophets had spoken 
as the characteristic qualities in the life of God were ex¬ 
hibited in supreme form. His serene faith in the Father 
and in that way of life of which he ever talked to his fol¬ 
lowers set him in a place apart from all the founders of 
the world’s religions. He not only preached his religion; he 
was it. 

At the heart of the good news he proclaimed was the 
recognition of the outflowing life and love of God, and 
the passion to mediate that divine disclosure to the world. 
The outpoured life of God, faintly symbolized in the crude 
and often repellent cultus of animal sacrifice, was and is 
evermore the central fact of life. The spirit of sacrifice 
was therefore the impulse that controlled his ministry, as 
it must be the guiding principle of every purposeful and 
successful life. His goal was the cross, not as a spectacle or 
an episode, but as the consummation and interpretation of 
his career and his message. The cross of Christ is not an 
isolated fact, but the unveiling of a cosmic and unescapable 
principle. It is the growing recognition of this fact which 
invests the Lenten days and Holy Week with their increasing 
meaning in the revolving year. 

It was the cross to which Jesus steadfastly set his face 
from the long days in the Judean wilderness, as the only 


— 312 — 




The Continuing Word 


escape from compromise and failure. It is the revelation of 
his life and of the life of God as made known by him to 
his brothers in the great human circle. In virtue of the 
cross Jesus has become in the fullest degree the continuing 
word of God to the ages. His life and death have hemi¬ 
spheric meaning. It was a costly life to live. It was a tragic 
death to die. It is not an easy recital to give to our self- 
satisfied and self-indulgent age. 

“Not in soft speech is told the earthly story, 

Love of all Loves! that showed thee for an hour; 
Shame was thy kingdom, and reproach thy glory, 
Death thine eternity, the Cross thy power.’’ 

Through the power of his cross he became the enduring 
word of God, the eternal Logos. 

In a very true sense the Fourth Gospel with its supple¬ 
ment in the First Epistle is the crowning utterance of the 
New Testament. Scholarship has found in the Synoptic 
Gospels a more graphic and authentic narrative of the life 
of the Lord. But the Fourth Gospel gives the supreme, the 
mystical, the satisfying interpretation of the incarnate Word, 
which has justified through the centuries the title for the 
writer — whoever he was — of St. John the Divine, the 
theologian, the philosopher par excellence of the early 
church. His conception of Jesus as the Logos — whenceso¬ 
ever that idea came, Heraclitus, Philo or another — is no 
mere device of Christian dialectic to mediate to Greek phil¬ 
osophic thought the Christian doctrine of the divine revela¬ 
tion. In its deep significance it is the truest and most 
authoritative interpretation of the character and mission of 


3i3 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


the Lord. That which the Baghavad Gita, the Indian Song 
of Songs, did for Hinduism, that which the Lotus message 
of Mahayana Buddhism did for the faith of Ceylon and 
Burmah, that and more the Fourth Gospel has done for 
Christianity. Krishna, the teacher and warrior, became the 
avatar and epiphany of deity; Siddartha, yogi and mendi¬ 
cant, became the Buddha, the Enlightened; Jesus, the prophet 
and servant of humanity, became the Logos and the incar¬ 
nation of the eternal God.* Harnack says, “ The incom¬ 
parable significance of this personality as a force still 
working — this is the essence of Christianity.” 

The marvel of the life of Jesus is the fact that though 
he was bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, yet he 
transcended all the categories of our fragmentary lives, 
looked deep into the crystalline heart of the universe and 
spoke for all time the essential truths of the spiritual life. 
It was his to utter a universal and perpetual message. He 
did not permit himself to be misunderstood as saying, Other 
teachers may speak as they will, but for myself and my 
followers these shall be the rules of the order: Love your 
enemies, forgive those who persecute you, take up the cross 
and follow me. No. He made it clear past all misappre¬ 
hension that these and his other teachings are universal and 
eternal truths; that God being what he is, and man such as 
history proves him to be, that everywhere and always it is 
true that he that asks receives, he that seeks finds, to him 
that knocks it is opened; that the meek inherit the earth; 
that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are 
filled, and that the pure in heart see God. 

* Saunders, The Gospel for Asia . 








The Continuing Word 


That is why the ethic of Jesus seems romantic and im¬ 
practicable. But human nature has the same qualities, and 
in the final issue the ideals of Jesus, severely applied, are 
shown to be superbly practicable, and the only ideals that 
will work in the stress of experience. Jesus has offered a 
pattern of behavior far more contagious and compelling 
than that of Confucius, the most widely revered sage in all 
history. In his estimate of the value and splendor of human 
life Jesus stands unapproachable, mountain-high, like Ev¬ 
erest or Fujiyama. Where the Buddha and Laotse offered 
engaging precepts, Jesus exhibited the life of God. And 
at the long last it is God of whom the ages wish to know. 
No matter how eloquently a prophet or sage may speak 
on any other theme, if he has nothing authentic and assur¬ 
ing to proclaim concerning the Eternal, he may well keep 
silence. The cry of humanity is still and evermore the 
anxious word of Philip, “ Show us the Father.” 

It is this that makes convincing the life of our Lord 
as the eternal revelation of God, the puissant Master of the 
spiritual realm. It was this timeless quality in his character 
and teaching that inspired the author of Hebrews to affirm 
that he “ through an eternal spirit offered himself.” 14 His 
eternity lay in his ability to transcend the things of time 
and place and live in the world of eternal realities. Quite 
above the level of theological controversies regarding his pre¬ 
existence, Jesus could say with austere and tranquil finality, 
“ Before Abraham was, I am .” 15 And the same Christian 
teacher who has furnished us the passage regarding the con¬ 
tinuing word declares that the Christ “ was foreknown be- 
i*Heb. 9:14; 15 John 8:58. 


— 315 — 



The Bible Through the Centuries 


fore the foundation of the world, but was manifest at the 
end of the times for our sakes.” 10 By these words he rightly 
audits the timeless nature of our Lord’s redemptive work. 
Koheleth says that to every thing there is a season, and a 
time for every purpose under heaven. That God has made 
everything beautiful in its time. But also that he has set 
the world, the universe, ’olam, eternity, in men’s hearts , 17 
and they are faint with longing till they transcend the things 
of time and place, and attain this purer air, this wider view. 
The cry of the soul is evermore: 

“ I stifle here in this narrow place, 

Sick for the infinite fields of space.” 

It is this homesickness of the human heart that the Master 
alone can satisfy by his demonstration of the fact that he 
is the way to God, the source and fount of being; that he 
is the ageless and world-embracing truth; and that he is the 
life eternal. To know him and the Father, as he said, is 
to possess eternal life. These are the chief factors in that 
“good news” of love, which he declared to be the sum 
of the law and the prophets. When Paul penned that in¬ 
comparable Psalm of Love he was unconsciously or de¬ 
liberately setting down the biography of Jesus. You can 
substitute his name in every sentence where that magic 
word “ love ” appears, and the meaning will be the same. 
And of him as of love one may well say, “ He never fails 
. . . and, he abides.” “ Jesus Christ the same yesterday, 
today and forever ” 18 

16 Eccl. 3:11; 17 1 Pet. 1:10; w I Cor. 13:13; Heb. 13:8. 

— 316 — 




The Continuing Word 


So the New Testament whose theme is the word made 
flesh sums up and completes the Old Testament, in which 
the prophets spoke the enduring word to the fathers. They 
are the two parts of the perfect whole. Each is incomplete 
without the other. Alone, the second lacks perspective and 
background. Without the second, the first is like a torso 
without the head, a story without a sequel. The four bands 
of mystic sculpture around the dome of Arthur’s palace 
fittingly symbolize, two of them the Old Testament, and two 
of them the New: 

“ And in the lowest beasts are slaying men, 

And in the second men are slaying beasts, 

And on the third are warriors, perfect men, 

And on the fourth are men with growing wings.” 

The two divisions of our Bible are like the two portions of 
the Homeric epic, the grandest in literature. The Old 
Testament is the Iliad of the race, in which fierce contest 
is waged, and victory comes at last only after bitter struggles 
and many tragic defeats; even as to the Greek hosts “far 
on the ringing plains of windy Troy.” The New Testa¬ 
ment is the Odyssey of the human soul, telling the story 
of how after long wanderings and sore distresses, it comes 
by the grace of God, back to its long-sought home, the land 
of heart’s desire. 

Not only is the continuing word contained in the holy 
Scriptures with their glorious messages of prophets, priests, 
psalmists and sages, apostles, evangelists, and One greater 
than all, the supreme Life; it is evident in the outflow 


— 3i7 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


of the Christian movement in the world, and in the church 
which has been its active interpreter that word is likewise 
disclosed. Not without valid reasons has the Church of 
Rome, the oldest of the communions of western Christianity, 
insisted that the word and spirit of God abide in the living 
church as well as in the Bible. Neither is perfect. Both 
show the marks of human workmanship and the limitations 
of human understanding. But both have proved themselves 
to be instruments through which the spirit of God has 
wrought efficiently for the enlightenment and the enrich¬ 
ment of mankind. The authority which they possess is not 
that of an inerrant record, nor an infallible code of morals; 
not that of a miraculously founded institution, nor a body 
of supernaturally inspired and safeguarded tradition. The 
claims of both Protestant and Catholic in behalf of the Bible 
and the church demand examination and revision. 

Nevertheless, in spite of their limitations and defects, 
they have proved themselves through the centuries the chief 
means by which the life of God has been disclosed and medi¬ 
ated to the world. The process has been slow and fitful. 
Just as the Old Testament is the record of a hindered and 
painful development of ethical and religious ideals, so the 
church has advanced through alternate days of gloom and 
light to fuller perception of the teachings of Jesus and ampler 
exemplification of the will of God. The mistakes of the 
church have been many and costly. It has wasted valuable 
years in fruitless millenarian speculations; it has blundered 
through decades of unhappy theological controversy; it 
squandered its substance and the manhood of half Europe 
in the bloody tragedy of the crusades; it indulged in bitter 

— 318 — 



The Continuing Word 


persecution of infidels, Jews and heretics; it has taken pride 
in ecclesiasticisms, rituals, creedal formulations, movements, 
spasms of promotional zeal and crude forms of evangelism, 
and in the accumulation of numbers and wealth. Worst of 
all, the divisions of the church have been an open scandal 
and a confession of weakness. Yet in spite of these and 
other manifestations of the world passion for the spectral 
symbols of success, the quiet inner life of the church has 
gone onward from generation to generation, largely un¬ 
influenced by such surface appearances of strength or weak¬ 
ness. Like Ezekiel’s river, flowing from beneath the thresh¬ 
old of the temple: 

“ Ever with so soft a surge and an increasing, 

Drunk of the sand and thwarted of the clod, 

Stilled and astir and checked and never ceasing, 
Spreadeth the great wave of the grace of God.” 

Notwithstanding all the mistakes which have been 
made in the name of Christianity, whose survival of them 
is the most luminous proof of its divine character, the church 
has gone onward, lengthening its cords and strengthening 
its stakes, and stands today the most conspicuous and ma¬ 
jestic of institutions, the living embodiment of the great 
undertaking which Jesus conceived, and the vital expression 
of that enduring word, germinal, diffusive, unhurried, vic¬ 
torious through the years. 

This is no mere apologetic claim by partisan and 
advocate. It is the testimony of the centuries and the con¬ 
tinents and is vindicated by achievements. Christianity 


3i9 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


and the Christ who is its Lord laid compelling hands on 
Hebrew history and made it a servant and a herald; on the 
Roman empire, and transformed it into a Christian state; 
on Greek philosophy, and converted its dialectic to the uses 
of the new faith; and on the darkest and most tragic ages 
in European annals, and through the ministries of humble 
and sacrificial lives, like those of St. Francis and the morning 
stars of the Reformation, brought to birth a new world. 
And in our own day the Master, through this same imper¬ 
fect instrument, is yet laying his transforming hand on the 
modern curses of humanity: race and caste prejudice; the 
vile traffics in intoxicants and narcotics, the chief menaces 
of our social order; the spirit of industrial intolerance, on 
the part both of capital and labor; the craze of militarism, 
with its tinsel and millenary, its jingo slogans and its pseudo¬ 
patriotism; the arrogant effrontery of certain forms of big 
business in their unholy and defiling traffic with politics; 
and all the false pretenses and the hollow shams of the 
world, the flesh and the devil masquerading too often in 
the evening dress of polite society or even in the livery of 
the church. In the measure of the loyalty of such of 
his friends as are true-hearted and unafraid, he is winning 
his victories and, as in the first days of the church, creating 
a new heaven and a new earth. For such conquests he alone 
is sufficient. No other can bend the bow of Ulysses, no 
other can strangle the twin serpents of sin and suffering. 

Perhaps it is in its contacts with the great faiths of the 
world that Christianity based upon the Bible has come to 
its best moments of self-criticism and has begun to win its 
most enduring successes. It is because there is in it the 

— 320 — 




The Continuing Word 


power to answer the world’s wistful questings after truth, to 
meet its most baffling problems with an assuring solution, 
that it finds increasing hospitality in the minds of the most 
intuitive and thoughtful of mankind. There are problems 
over which the ages have pondered and before which the 
keenest intellects have sat in silence. There was no wit in 
their systems competent to unravel the riddles of existence. 

“ Earth could not answer; nor the seas that mourn 
In flowing purple, of their Lord forlorn; 

Nor rolling heaven, with all his signs revealed 
And hidden by the sleeve of night and morn.” 

Christianity has no easy and swift elucidation for these 
perplexing inquiries which puzzled Zoroaster, or set Moti 
pondering over the mystery of life, or confronted the 
Brahmin, sunk in his vast and austere speculations. But in 
its larger spirit of appreciation of all that is best in the ethnic 
faiths, Christianity is winning its way to their reverent atten¬ 
tion, and is drawing from such self-less and prophet-like 
souls as Gandhi the glad confession that Christianity is 
prepared to make an enduring contribution to Asia, and 
that the loftiest and most authoritative document ever 
written is the Sermon on the Mount. 

An early type of missionary teaching, a type which is 
not yet wholly superseded, insisted that the glory of the 
gospel was its complete unlikeness to all other religions; 
that its serious task was to destroy them as quickly as pos¬ 
sible. The Master of Baliol however insists that the glory 
of Christianity is not to be as unlike other religions as pos- 


— 321 — 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


sible, but rather to be their perfection and their judgment. 
Dr. Glover says that as the Roman Empire was permeated 
and overcome by Christianity, so the rest of the world will 
be, if only it can insist on loyalty to its divine ideals. From 
the days of the Master the movement which started with 
him has proved its ability to assimilate the best in the world’s 
systems of thought, fulfilling their aspirations and judging 
their deficiencies. It is this power of completion and judg¬ 
ment in our holy faith which constitutes the surest token 
of its finality. It is not alone its capacity for examination 
and rebuke for what is wrong in the other religions. It 
is rather its perennial faculty of self-criticism and amend¬ 
ment wherein lies the hope of the future, and the vindi¬ 
cation of the claim of this marvelous enterprise to be the 
continuing word of God to every age and all mankind. 

Just as the most outstanding weakness in the church 
today is its manifold divisions, so the surest token of its 
coming power is its manifest ability to transcend these di¬ 
visive limitations and achieve the more generous attitude 
of love and fellowship. The words of Jesus and Paul are 
the mandate for the undertaking. That plea for the unity 
of God’s people holds the central place in Christian history 
and its present evangel. To forget it is to prove recreant 
to the divine purpose and the holy word. In the spirit of the 
Scriptures and of the Christ whom they declare the church 
will come to its true unity, and of that fruition of the hopes 
of the years the signs of promise hang out like the banners of 
God against the black-breasted night. The dreams of early 
Christian prophets and apostles will not fail of realization. 
One day, toward which we hasten, the church will achieve 


— 322 — 




The Continuing Word 


its holy destiny, and stand in virginal beauty like the Par¬ 
thenon, in white splendor like the Taj Mahal; the symbol of 
a people’s hope, the center of a world’s desire. 

In the final issue it is the individual believer who 
is the living word. As God spoke to the fathers in the 
prophets; as some of their messages took form and have 
found their way to us in the holy Scriptures; as the fullest 
revelation of the Father came in the person of our Lord, and 
was transmitted in varying degrees through the lives and 
preaching of the early disciples and in the writings of early 
believers; and just as that same continuing word has been 
proclaimed with greater or less fidelity by the church; so 
today and in all the days, it finds its utterance and vindica¬ 
tion in the lives and speech of the friends of the Lord. The 
word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The word must 
always become flesh to be understood. In the life of every 
preacher of the faith, every teacher of the truth, every mis¬ 
sionary at home or abroad, every native Christian in the 
non-Christian lands, every layman and mother in Israel, 
the word becomes flesh again in the measure of their com¬ 
mitment to the high program of the Master. Again as al¬ 
ways in the past that word is vital, germinal, pervasive, 
enduring. The most familiar and comprehensive verse in 
the Scripture is that notable utterance of the Fourth Gospel, 
“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son.” 19 Yet as truly might it be written, “ God so loves the 
world that he is giving his every begotten son,” and that 
eternal self-bestowal is the secret of the world’s redemption, 
and the hope of the ages. As in all its past manifestation 

wjohn 3:16. 


—323- 




The Bible Through the Centuries 


to the race it is the ceaseless problem of the divine life, how 
this word may break through the imperfect media of its 
transmission. Once only in the long story of the centuries 
was that problem completely solved, and we have been 
breathless ever since to catch the last faint echo of that voice. 

Happily the adventure is never complete. Around us 
is the world, and before us the way forward. For that old 
world is new in promise and opportunity. Like the aged 
Ulysses, not content with his Ithacan home, lured to fresh 
ventures, so the follower of our Lord, the seeker after the 
further treasures of the Word of God, unsatisfied with past 
attainments, may well repeat the final words of the great 
Olympian: 


“Come, my friends, 

’Tis not too late to seek a newer world; 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down; 

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 
Though much is taken, much abides; and though 
We are not now the strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; 
One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to fail.” 


— 324 — 




BIBLIOGRAPHY 


THE BIBLE 

Peake. The Bible, Its Origin, Its Significance and Its Abiding Worth 

Selleck. The New Appreciation of the Bible 

Booth. The Background of the Bible 

Hunting. The Story of Our Bible 

Sunderland. The Origin and Character of the Bible 

Gilbert. The Interpretation of The Bible 

Moulton. The Literary Study of the Bible 

Fosdick. The Modern Use of the Bible 

Work. The Bible in English Literature 

Wood and Grant. The Bible as Literature 

THE OLD TESTAMENT 

Smith, J. M. P. The Old Testament: An American Translation 
Moffatt. The Old Testament: A New Translation 
Kent. The Shorter Bible: The Old Testament 

-. The Origin and "Permanent Value of the Old Testament 

Fowler. A History of the Literature of Ancient Israel 
Driver. Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament 
McFadyen. Old Testament Introduction 
Vernon. The Religious Value of the Old Testament 
Moore, G. F. The Literature of the Old Testament 
Batten. The Old Testament from the Modern Point of View 
Bade. The Old Testament in the Light of Today 
Jordan. Biblical Criticism and Modern Thought 
Houghton. Hebrew Life and Thought 
Knudson. Religious Teaching of the Old Testament 

OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY 

Sanders. History of the Hebrews 

Barton. Semitic Origins 

Smith, H. P. Old Testament History 

Wade. Old Testament History 

Ottley. Short History of the Hebrews 

Cornill. History of the People of Israel 

Hodges. Cl as shook of Old Testament History 

Price. The Dramatic Story of Old Testament History 


—325— 


The Bible Through the Centuries 


HEBREW AND JEWISH RELIGION 

Wild. The Evolution of the Hebrew People 

Fowler. Origin and Growth of the Hebrew Religion 

Budde. The Religion of Israel to the Exile 

Cheyne. Jewish Religious Life after the Exile 

Mathews. History of New Testament Times in Palestine 

Mitchell. The Ethics of the Old Testament 

Abrahams. Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels 

Kohler. Jewish Theology 

Barton. The Religion of Israel 

Smith, J. M. P. The Religion of the Psalms 

-. The Moral Life of the Hebrews 

THE PROPHETS 

Cornill. The Prophets of Israel 

Batten. The Hebrew Prophet 

Smith, J. M. P. The Prophet and His Problems 

-. The Prophets and Their Times 

THE BIBLE AND THE MONUMENTS 

Macalister. A Century of Excavation in Palestine 
Barton. Archaeology and the Bible 
Bliss and Macalister. Excavations in Palestine 
Price. The Old Testament and the Monuments 
Cobern. The New Archaeological Discoveries 

THE GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD 

Barton. Religions of the World 
Moore. History of Religions, i Vols. 

-. Judaism, x Vols. 

Soper. The Religions of Mankind 
Hume. The World's Living Religions 
Saunders. The Gospel for Asia 

Montgomery (ed.). Religions of the Past and Present 
Walker. History of the Christian Church 

THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Fowler. History and Literature of the New Testament 
Moffatt. Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament 
Goodspeed. The Story of the New Testament 

-. The Making of the English New Testament 

Bacon. The Making of the New Testament 

Moore. The New Testament in the Christian Church 

Burton and Willoughby. A Short Introduction to the Gospels 


326— 







Bibliography 


Goodspccd. The New Testament: An American Translation 
Kent. The Shorter Bible: The New Testament 
Moffatt. A New Translation of the New Testament 

APOCRYPHAL BOOKS 

The Apocrypha (O.T.) 

Charles. Old Testament Apocryphal Writings 
fames. Apocryphal New Testament 


JESUS 

Gilbert. Jesus 

Fosdick. The Manhood of the Master 
Gilkey. Jesus and Our Generation 
Bousset. Jesus 

Case. Jesus: A New Biography 
Barton. The Man Nobody Knows 


PAUL 

Foakes-Jackson. Life of St. Paul 
Robinson. The Life of Paul 
Ramsay. The Cities of St. Paul 
Ropes. Apostolic Age 
McGifFert. Apostolic Age 
Case. Evolution of Early Christianity 




































t 





























INDEX 


(A) NAMES 

Aaron, 63 
Abel, 130, 138 
Abraham, 29, 38, 140 
Abydos, 161 
Acts, 227 

Addison, Joseph, 98 
“ Adonai,” 27 
Aeschylus, 207 
Aesop, 105 
Agur, 80 

Ahab, 36, 76, 142, 143, 151, 170 
Ahaz, 46 

Akbar the Great, 158, 308 
Akhenaten (Ikhnaten), Amenhotep 
IV, 157, 158 
Akiba, R., 199 

Alexander the Great, 74, 119, 121, 
183, 266 

Alexandria, 196, 199 
Alfred the Great, 271 
Allenby, Gen. Lord, 166 
Amarna, Tell el-, 157 
Amaziah, 105 

Amenhotep III, 156, 157, 159, 165, 
170 

Amenhotep IV, 156, 157 
American Bible Society, 269 
American School of Oriental Re¬ 
search (Jerusalem), 169, 170, 171 
American Translation of the Old 
Testament, 136 
Amon, 48 
Amorites, 168 

Amos, 36, 42, 47 ) 50, 53 ) 55 , 59 , 68, 
76, 116, 139, 140, 141, 142, 306 
Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, 119, 122, 
123, 124 

“ Apocalypse of Peter,” 234, 235 
Aqiba, R., 247 
Arabs, 197, 216, 218 
Aram, 185 

Archaeological Institute of America, 
169 


Ark of the Covenant, 63, 115, 141 
Armageddon, 41, 170 
Artaxerxes I, 190 
Artaxerxes II, 190 
Arthur, King, 102, 317 
“ Ascension of Isaiah,” 244 
Ashurbanipal, 163 
Asia Minor, 164, 165, 224 
Askelon, 170 

“ Assumption of Moses,” 244 
Assyria, 13, 44, 49, 50, 93, no, 115, 
116, 129, 140, 150, 162, 164, 181, 
185, 186, 242 
Astarte, 170 
Athaliah, 37 

Athens, 165, 182, 222, 301 
Augustine, 236, 237 
Austrian School of Research, 169 
Avesta (Zend), 209, 279 
Azazel, 23 

Baal, 45 
Babel, 23, 38 
Babylon, 52, 53, 55, 163 
Babylonia, 13, 49, 50, 54, 56, 73, 
75, 108, 115, 120, 121, 122, 123, 
137 , 143 , 15 °, 152, 156, 157 , 162, 
164, 181, 182, 185, 187, 188, 192, 
195, T 96, 202, 206, 216, 242, 301 
Bade, William F., 170 
Bagdad School of Research, 164 
Balaam, 31 
Balaam, Oracle of, 22 
Bar Cokeba, 200 
Barnabas, Epistle of, 234, 245 
Baruch, Apocalypse of, 117, 118, 
199 

Bede, Venerable, 271 
Behemoth, 23 
Behistun Rock, 163 
Beisan (Beth Shean), 170 
“Bel and the Dragon,” 112, 199 
Belshazzar, 121 
Bernard of Clairvaux, 98 


— 329 — 


Index 


Bernard of Cluny, 98 
Bethel, 141, 170 
Bethlehem, 109, 267 
Bishops’ Bible, 275 
Black Obelisk, 163 
“ Blessing of Moses,” 72 
Bliss, Frederick J., 169 
Boghaz-keui, 164 
“ Book of the Covenant,” 71 
Book of the Covenant, 69, 70, 72, 
73, 126, 127, 144 
“ Book of the Dead,” 206 
“ Book of the Wars of Jahveh,” 242 
Bordeaux Pilgrim, the, 167 
Botta, Paul Emile, 163 
Breasted, James Henry, 160, 162 
British and Foreign Bible Society, 1, 
269, 288 

British School of Archaeology, 169 
Brooks, Phillips, 99 
Bryant, William Cullen, 99 
Buddha, Gautama, 210, 211, 212, 
312, 314, 315 
Bunyan, John, 113 
By bios, 16 

Caedmon, 271 
Cain, 138 

Cairo, 155, i 57 > 270 
Cairo Museum, 158, 159, 161 
Canaan, 183, 185 
Canaanites, 62, 75, 177, 183 
Canticles (Song of Solomon), 85, 
130, 131, 132, 257 
Capernaum, 171 
Carchemish, 164 
Carthage, Council of, 237 
Chaldeans, 50, 51 

Champollion, Jean Francois, 160, 166 
Charles, C. H., 244 
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 272 
China, 12, 15, 151, 210, 214 
Chronicles, Books of, 35, 36, 74, 75, 
100, 108, 129, 130, 134, 148, 189, 
242 

Chrysostom, John, 236 
Cid, Campeador, the, 102 
Clement of Alexandria, 234, 245 
Clement of Rome, 234 
Conder, C. R., 164, 168 
Confucius, 15, 214, 215, 315 
Constantine I, 167, 238 


Constantinople, 235, 270 
Corinth, 165, 196, 222, 223, 224 
Corinthians, Epistles to, 223 
Coverdale, Miles, 274 
Crete, Excavations in, 165 
Crusades, Crusaders, 169, 170, 197, 
318 

Cyrus the Great, 56, 57, 143, 182, 
188, 210, 242 

Damascus, 46, 47, 49 
Daniel, 59, 81, 107, 112, 114, 116, 
119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 130, 
194, 198, 244, 257, 260 
Darius I, 58 

David, 26, 34, 66, 79, 90, 91, 94, 
109, 136, 138, 142, 145, 157, 165, 
166, 291, 357 

Decalogue (see Ten Commandments) 
De Morgan, J., 160, 163 
De Sarzec, Ernest, 163 
Deuteronomy, 32, 51, 63, 65, 71, 72, 
73, 84, 127, 128, 136, 144, 145, 146, 
147, 191, 303 

Deutsche Palastina-Verein, 169 
Diatessaron of Tatian, 232 
“ Didache,” (see Teachings of the 
Twelve Apostles) 

Dog River Inscriptions, 166 
Dominicans, Excavations of, 169 
Douai Version, 275 
Druses, 218 

Ebed-hepa, King of Jerusalem, 157 
Ecbatana, 163 

Ecclesiastes, 83, 86,106, 130,131,132, 
198, 304, 316 

Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus ben 
Sirach), 257 

Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem, 169 
Edom, 53, 55 

Egypt, 13, 25, 49, 52, 53, 55, 73, 124, 

140, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 

156 , 157 , 159 , 160, 162, 165, 166, 

169, 170, 173, 181, 185, 187, 198, 

242, 266, 268 

Egyptian Department of Antiquities, 
161 

Egyptian Exploration Fund, 161 
Elephantine, 160, 187 
Elihu, 82, 148 
Elijah, 36, 40, 58, 139 


—330— 





Index 


Elisha, 36, 40, 59, 139, 142 
“ Elohim,” 39 

Elohistic prophetic or “ E ” Source, 
39, 68, 126, 128, 139, 140, 141 
Enoch, Book of, 23, 117, 118, 198, 
244 

Ephesus, 165, 196, 223, 224, 227, 236 
Erasmus, Desiderius, 237, 252 
Esarhaddon, 163 
Esdrus, Fourth, 118 
Essenes, 193 

Esther, Book of, 107, hi, 112, 130, 
131, 199 

Eusebius, 234, 235 

Ezekiel, 54, 55, 60, 73, 81, 108, 
116, 128, 146, 187, 188, 191, 195, 
3i9 

Ezra, 63, 74, 108, 118, 127, 129, 130, 
147, 183, 188, 189, 190, 191, 195, 
201, 244 

Fayyum, the, 161 
Fisher, Clarence S., 170 
Franciscans, Excavations of, 171 

Galatians, Epistle to, 223 
Galilee, 291 
Gamaliel, 201 
Gandhi, M. K., 321 
Garstang, John, 164, 170 
Gath, 151, 169 
Gathas, the, 209, 210, 212 
Gedaliah, 53 
Gemara, 76, 201, 216 
Genesis, 150, 206, 240, 258 
Gezer, 153, 169, 176, 178 
Gibeah, 170 
Gideon, 105 

Gita (Bhagavad), 208, 209, 314 ’ 
Gizeh, 161 

Gladden, Washington, 99 
Gladstone, William E., 264 
“ Gloria in Excelsis,” 97 
Goodspeed, Edgar J., 229, 278 
“ Gordon’s Calvary,” 172 
“ Gospel of the Hebrews,” 235 
“ Gospel of Peter,” 235 
Gospels, 221, 225, 229, 232, 260, 271 
Granth, the, 218 

Greece, 14, 123, 150, 165, 184, 196, 
206, 207, 227, 264, 301, 313, 320 
Grotefend, George Frederick, 162 


Habakkuk, 50 
Hadrian, 200 
Haggai, 57, 58, 182, 189 
Hallels, 96 
Haman, 112 
Hamath, 164 

Hammurabi, 67, 68, 151, 279 
Hannah, Song of, 134 
Harnack, Adolf, 314 
Harper, Robert Francis, 163 
Harvard University, 170 
Hathor, 156 
Haynes, John H., 163 
Hebrews, 24, 183, 191, 193, 196, 197, 
208, 240, 305 
Hebrews, Epistle to, 228 
Helena, Empress, 167 
Henry VIII, 224 

Hermas, Epistle of, 233, 234, 235, 

245 

Herod the Great, 176, 194, 245 
Herodians, 194 

Hexateuch, the, 32, 38, 67, 258, 260 
Hezekiah, 45, 48, 66, 69, 79, 144, 151, 

246 

Hilkiah, 70 
Hillel, 201 

Hilprecht, Herman V., 163 
Hittites, 156, 164, 165 
Hogarth, D. G., 164 
Holy Sepulchre, 167, 171 
Homer, 206, 317 

Hosea, 44, 47 , 5 U 59 , 68 , 116, 139, 
142, 143 
Hyksos, 156 

Ikhnaten, Amenhotep IV (see Ak- 
henaten) 

India, 14, 88, 207, 210, 211, 213 
Inquisition, 203 
Irenaeus, 232 

Isaiah, 43, 45, 47, 51, 59, 84, 106, 116, 
ii7, 139 

Isaiah, Book of, 46, 47 
Ishtar (Astarte), 206 
Israel, Kingdom of, 26, 36, 39, 63, 
129, 181, 186 
Israel, Spirit of, 152 

Jacob, 29, 38, 108, 141 
Jaddua, 74 

“ Jahveh,” the name, 27 


—331 — 




Index 


Jahvist, Jehovist, or “ J ” Source, 37, 
67, 68, 69, 126, 128, 138, 141, i44> 
186 

James, Epistle of, 228 
James I, King, 275, 276 
Jamnia, 132 

Jashar, Book of, 22, 242 
“ JE,” Prophetic document, 40, 69, 
72, 126 
Jebusites, 196 
Jehoahaz, 100 
Jehoash, 105 
Jehoiachin, 52, 57 
Jehoiakim, 51, 52 
Jehoshaphat, 151 
“ Jehovah,” the name, 27 
Jehu, 36, 142 
Jehu inscription, 164 
Jensen, Peter, 164 

Jeremiah, 49, 51, 52, 53, 59, 100, 105, 
116, 124, 182, 187 
Jericho, 153, 166 
Jeroboam I, 66 
Jeroboam II, 43, 44, 171 
Jerome, St., 236, 237, 267, 275, 349 
Jerusalem, 48, 50, Si, 52, S3, SS, 69, 
72, 75, 90, 100, 120, 121, 127, 128, 
137, 143, 145, 146, 157, 159, 166, 

167, 176, 179, 181, 182, 184, 188, 

190, 194, 196, 200, 222, 224, 225, 

226, 227, 265, 301 

Jesus Christ, 60, 103, 106, 119, 123, 

182, 194, 214, 220, 226, 227, 229, 

262, 263, 264, 287, 292, 294, 296, 

300, 304, 305, 311, 314, 317, 319, 

320, 322, 323 

Jews, 115, 118, 122, 123, 129, 131, 
167, 181, 182, 183, 184, 190, 195, 

196, 197, 198, 202, 220, 223, 226, 

244, 246, 278, 319 
Jezebel, 36, 142 
Joab, 106 

Job, 41, 80, 81, 82, 107, 130, 148, 150, 
241 

Joel, 58, 108, 117, 191 

John the Baptist, 60 

John, Gospel of, 313, 314, 323 

Jonah, 58, 59, 107, 109, no, in 

Jonathan, 170 

Jordan, 109 

Josephus, 131, 196 

Joshua, 137 


Josiah, 48, 49, si, 52, 67, 72,100,126, 
128, 14S 
Jotham, 105 

Jubilees, Book of, 202, 244 
Judah, 124, 147, 181, 182, 183, 187, 
188, 189, 262 

Judah, Kingdom of, 26, 37, 46, 47, 
49, Si 

Judean Prophetic document, (see 
Jahvist) 

Judith, 112, 199 
Jupiter, 125 
Justin Martyr, 232 

Kadish, 156 
Karnak, 156, 159, 161 
Khufu (Cheops), 155 
Kings, Book of, 134 
Kitchener, H. H.. Gen. Lord, 168 
Knossos, 165 
Koldeway, Robert, 163 
Koran, 192, 199, 213, 216, 217, 218, 
279, 282, 284 
Krishna, 314 

Lachish, 169 

Lamentations, 100, 101, 130 
Langdon, Stephen, 163 
Laotse, 315 

“ Law,” First division of the Old 
Testament, 129, 131, 132, 200, 257 
Lebanon, 95, 105, 166 
Lemuel, 80 

Lepsius, Karl Richard, 160 
Levi, 14s 
Leviathan, 23 

Levites, 62, 63, 71, 90, 127, 146, 190 
Lilith, 23 

Loftus, William K., 163 
“ Logia of Jesus,” (see “ Sayings of 
Jesus ”) 

Luke, 171, 226, 232 

Luther, Martin, 95, 237, 238, 258 

LXX (see Septuagint) 

Lyon, D. G., 170 

Macalister, R. A. Stewart, 153, 169 
Maccabees, Books of, 112, 119, 123, 
130, 168, 176, 178, 193, 199, 234, 
243 

Macedonia, 121, 183, 193, 222, 223 
Mackenzie, Duncan, 169 


— 332 - 






Index 


Madeba Map, the, 171 
“ Magnificat,” the, 96 
Mahabharata, the, 102, 209 
Malachi, 58, 189, 191, 306 
Manasseh, 48, 49, 50, 67, 69, 70, 72, 
144 

Marduk, 206 

Mariette, Auguste Edouard, 160 
Mary, Queen, 175 
Maspero, Gaston Camille, 160 
Massoretes, 247, 248 
Matthew, Gospel of, 226 
Medea, Medes, 49, 121, 122, 123, 
162 

Mediterranean Sea, 8, 50, 153, 188 
Megiddo, 41, 73, 151, 156, 170 
Memphis, 161 
Mencius, 215 
Merneptah, Pharaoh, 159 
Mesha Inscription, 246 
Mesopotamia, 162 

Metropolitan Museum, New York 
City, 161 
Mexico, 174 

Micah, 45, 47, 59, 116, 139, 169 
Micah of Ephraim, 62 
Michael Angelo, 263 
Mishnah, 76, 201, 216 
Mitanni, 156, 164 
Mizpeh, 171 
Moab, 109, 185 
Moabite Stone, 171 
Moffatt, James, 222, 278 
Mohammedanism, 41, 116, 167, 169, 
191, 192, 197, 210, 214, 216, 217, 
218, 284 

Monuments, 151, 154, 159, 167 
Mordecai, 112 

Moses, 30, 31, 32, 40, 48, 61, 62, 63, 
67, 68, 71, 74, 89, 91, 93, 127, 128, 
145, 194, 199, 201, 214, 260, 284, 
290 

Moulton, Richard G., 278 
Muratori, Ludovico, 233 

Nabateans, 188 

Nablous (Shechem), 129, 166, 265 
Nahum, 49 
Naomi, 109 

Napoleon, Expedition to Egypt, 160 
Nathan, 35, 66 
Naville, Edouard, 160 


Nebuchadrezzar II, 54, 58, 120, 121, 
163, 187, 242 
Necho, Pharaoh, 73 
Nehemiah, 74, 127, 130, 147, 160, 
183, 188, 189, 190, 191 
Newman, John Henry, 99 
New Testament, 311, 317 
Nibelungenlied, 102 
Niebuhr, Karsten, 162 
Nile, 53, 150, 154, 155, 156, 157, 160, 
164 

Nineveh, no, in, 163 
Noah, 81, 141 
“ Nunc Dimittis,” 97 

Obadiah, 53 

Old Testament, 10, 76, 193, 310, 317 
Omri, 170 
Oppert, Jules, 163 

Oriental Institute of the University 
of Chicago, 162, 164, 170 
Origen, 234, 245 
Oxyrhynchus, 160 

Palestine, 25, 32, 40, 41, 47, 50, 57, 
73, 77, 83, 93, 108, 119, 150, 152, 
156, i57, 159, 164, 165, 166, 167, 
168, 182, 183, 184, 188, 195, 196, 
197, 199, 202, 216 

Palestine Exploration Fund, 153, 167 
Papyrus, 160, 177, 206, 250 
Parsees, 209, 210 
Patriarchs, 23, 24, 151, 259, 293 
Paul, 97, 165, 196, 221, 225, 226, 227, 
230, 231, 232, 236, 237, 245, 261, 
291, 304, 306, 316, 322 
Peiser, F. E., 164 

Pentateuch, 32, 74, 265, 266, 284, 290 
Pericles, 183, 302 

Persia, 53, 56, 58, in, 112, 121, 122, 
163, 168, 193, 196, 202 
Persian Inscriptions, 162 
Peter, 225, 227, 233, 291, 306 
Peters, John P., 163 
Petrie, W. Flinders, 154, 169 
Pharisees, 193, 194, 200 
Philistines, 33, 55, 165, 176, 185 
Philo, 131, 194, 195, 3i3 
Phoenicia, 156, 157, 246 
Pitakas, 211, 213, 279 
Pithom, 151 
Plato, 198, 207, 213 


333 





Index 


Priests, 61, 65, 127, 144,145,146, 147 , 
192, 200, 310 
Prince Judah, R., 201 
Prophets, 28, 35, 61, 76, 141, 183, 
310, 312 

“ Prophets,” Second section of the 
Old Testament, 89, 129, 131, 132, 
200, 232, 238, 256 

Proverbs, 19, 20, 78, 79, 85, 86, 
130 

Psalms, 34, 78, 84, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 
93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101, 108, 

130, I 35, 189, 206, 231, 257, 260, 
271, 272 

“ Psalms of Solomon,” 202, 244 
“ Psalms,” Third section of the Old 
Testament (see also “Writings”), 

131, 200 

Psalter, 34, 94, 96, 99 

Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, 198, 266 

Rabbis, 194, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 
289, 291 
“ Rahab,” 23 
Ramayana, 102, 209 
Rameses II, 151, 158, 159, 170, 176 
Rameses IEf, 162, 165 
Ramsay, William M., 165 
Rassam, Hormuzd, 163 
Rawlinson, Henry C. 163 
Reformation, Josiah’s, 49, 51, 126, 
144 , 145 

Reformation, Protestant, 258, 272, 
320 

Rehoboam, 159 
Reisner, G. A., 160, 161 
“ Remnant,” 189 
Reuchlin, Johann, 203 
Revelation, Book of, 114, 116, 118, 
227, 233, 235, 236, 237, 244, 261, 
282 

Revised Versions, 276, 277 
Revival of Learning, 237 
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 161, 171 
Roland, Epic of, 102 
Roman Catholic Bible, 239, 243 
Roman Catholics, 238, 258, 268, 275, 
278, 281, 318 

Rome, 14, 119, 123, 183, 194, 19s, 
196, 200, 215, 224, 225, 227, 228, 
2 33 , 237, 250, 267, 320 
Rosenwald, Julius, 162 


Rosetta Stone, 160, 163 
Ruth, 107, 109, 130 

Sadducees, 193, 194 
Sages, 61, 77, 79 

Samaria, 43, 44, 45, 181, 182, 185, 
220, 221, 266 

Samaria, Excavations at, 170 
Samaritans, 129, 181, 185, 187, 188, 
220, 265 

Samuel, 33, 40, 59, 142 
Samuel, Books of, 134 
Sardis, 165 
Sargon I, 163 

Sargon II, 44, 151, 185, 242 
Saul, King, 26, 30, 34, 170 
Saunders, Kenneth J. 314 
Sayce, A. H., 164 
“ Sayings of Jesus,” 160 
Schools of the Prophets, 33, 40, 77, 
138 

Scribes, 60, 76, 117, 127, 128, 193, 
199 , 257 
Scythians, 49 
Scythopolis, 170 

“ Second Isaiah,” 54, 56, 59, 108, 143, 

188, 302, 306 

Semites, 104, 149, 154, 156, 164, 179, 
180, 182, 206, 246 
Sennacherib, 47, 93, 151, 163, 242 
Septuagint (LXX), 131, 198, 199, 
231, 248, 266, 267, 268 
“ Servant of Jahveh,” 57, 108, 143 
Seti I, Pharaoh, 158, 170 
Shalmaneser IV, 164 
Shamash, 67 

Shechem (Nablous), 129 
Sheshbazzar, 188 

Sheshonk I, Pharaoh (Shishak), 159 
Shiloh, 33, 35 
Shushan (Susa), 112, 189 
Sibylline Oracles, 118, 202, 234, 244 
Siloam Inscription, 246 
Sinai, 25, 155, 156, 185 
Sirach, Jesus ben, 85, 86, 129, 131, 
132, 199, 236, 243, 306 
Smith, J. M. Powis, 29, 278 
Sobieski, John, 95 

Solomon, 26, 35, 56, 66, 79 , 84, 85, 
91, 106, 107, 145, 147, 151, 159, 

189, 257, 260 
Solomon’s Pools, 176 


— 334 — 






Index 


“ Son of Man,” 123 
Song of Deborah, 21 
Song of Hannah, 134 
Song of Moses, 21, 72 
Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, 
(Canticles), 107, 198 
“ Song of the Three Holy Children,” 
112, 199 

Sons of the Prophets, 33, 40, 43 
Spain, 203 

Synagogue, 75, 193, 196, 200, 201, 
246, 268 

Syria, 50, 119, 124, 156, 197, 268 

Tabernacle, 115, 147 
Tagore, Rabindranath, 208 
Talmud, 75, 192, 196, 201, 202, 216, 
257 

Targums, 248, 268 
Tatian, 232 

Teaching Orders in Israel, 61, 77, 103, 
133, 138 

“ Teachings of the Twelve Apostles,” 
17 , 235 
Tekoa, 106 
Tel-abib, 54, 73, 116 
Tell el-Amarna, 157 
Temple, 51, 55, 58, 63, 66, 70, 72, 75, 
90, 101, iis, 119, 123, 126, 145, 
147, 182, 189, 192, 194, 200, 319 
Ten Commandments (Decalogue), 
67, 68, 72, 115, 141, 271 
“ Ten Lost Tribes,” 186 
“ Testimonies of the Twelve Patri¬ 
archs,” 202 

Thebes, 49, 156, 157, 158, 162 

Thothmes III, Pharaoh, 156, 158, 170 

Tiglath-pileser III, 46 

Tigris, 150, 164 

Tih Desert, 166 

Titus, Epistle to, 196 

Tobit, 112, 199 

Torah, 74, 88, 89, 128, 129, 200, 216, 
257, 265, 287 
Trent, Council of, 238 
Turks, 197 
Turquois, 156 
Tut-ankh-amen, 158 
Tyndale, William, 271, 273, 274 


Ulysses, 320, 324 
University of Chicago, 153, 161 
University of Michigan, 161 
University of Pennsylvania, 170 
University of Pennsylvania Museum, 
161 

Upanishads, 207 
Ur, 151, 163 

Urim and Thummim, 31, 61, 63 
Uzziah, 45, 46 

Vedas, 14, 87, 89, 207, 208, 279 
Versions of the Bible, 247, 252, 254, 
270, 278 

Victor of Rome, 233 
Vulgate, 236, 237, 239, 248, 267, 272, 
275 

Ward, William Hayes, 163 

Warning Stone, 171 

Warren, Sir Charles, 167 

Watts, Isaac, 98 

Westcott and Hort, 253, 254 

Whittier, John G., 99 

Winckler, Hugo, 164 

Wisdom writings, 136 

“ Wisdom of Solomon,” 84, 132, 243 

Wise, the, 79 

Woolley, C. L., 163, 164 

World War, 164 

Writing, 18, 19, 27, 34, 36, 67, 69, 
75, 126, 130, 132, 155, 165, 176, 
184, 192, 220, 221, 225, 230, 246 
“ Writings,” Third section of the Old 
Testament, 89, 132, 238, 257 
Wyclif, John, 271, 272, 273 

Xerxes I, 58 

Zachariah, 130 
Zadok, 147 
Zealots, 194 

Zechariah, 57, 58, 59, 117, 137, 182, 
189 

Zedekiah, 52 
Zephaniah, 50 

Zerubbabel, 57, 137, 188, 189 
Zion, 93, 147 
Zoroaster, 15, 209, 321 


335 







Index 




(B) SUBJECTS 

Allegorical method, 191 
“ Amen,” 91 
Angels, 117, 129, 207 
Anglo-Israelitism, 186 
Anthropomorphism, 39 
Apocalypse, 60, 114, 116, 117, 118, 
120, 123, 124, 125, 170, 193, 228, 
230, 243, 244 

Apocrypha, 85, 112, 199, 231, 234, 
239, 243, 268, 271, 344 
Apocryphal Gospels, 245 
Arabic, 116, 269 

Aramaic, 181, 183, 193, 246, 265, 268 
Archaeological material, 164 
Archaeology, 149, 160, 198, 242, 
276 

Arts, 116, 152 
“ Ascents,” Songs of, 94 
Astrology, 31 

Authority of Scripture, 237, 289, 
290, 292, 294, 296, 299, 310 
Authorship, 43, 92, 101 
“ Ave Maria,” 96 

“ Benedictus,” 97 
Bibles, other, 219 

Biblical Criticism, 239, 247, 248, 250, 
252, 253, 255, 256, 258, 259, 260, 
263, 264 
Books, 34 

British administration, 162, 167, 197 
Buddhism, 212, 213, 214, 308 

Cabala, 202, 203 

Canon, 71, 75, 76, 127, 129, 130, 131, 
132, 165, 181, 205, 206, 207, 213, 

214, 215, 216, 230, 231, 233, 234, 

235, 2 37 j 238, 240, 245 

Caves, 175 
Cherubim, 115 

Christianity, 41, 76, 89, 96, 98, 113, 
191, 192, 197, 200, 202, 203, 210, 

220, 223, 270, 286, 303, 318, 319, 

320, 321, 322 
Cisterns, 175 
Compilation, 256, 261 
Coptic, 268 

Creation Epic, 206, 258, 285 
Critical labors, 138, 139, 141, 144, 
146, 147, 148 


Cross, of Christ, 312, 313 
Crown, 137 
Cuneiform, 163 
Curious Bibles, 270 

Deluge, Epic of, 163, 206, 258 
Dervishes, 30 
Desert, influence of, 41 
Dispersion of Hebrews (and Jews), 
10, 53, 76, 127, 143, 182, 183, 184, 
185, 186, 187, 191, 195, 196, 200, 
202, 203, 301 
Divination, 61, 63, 120 

Earthquakes, 166 
Editorial work, 134 
Egyptian tomb texts, 205 
Elegies, 22 

Epistles, 230, 231, 232 
Ethiopic, 268 

Excavation, 153, 162, 169, 178, 243 

Fable, 102, 105, 116, 124 
Figures of speech, 103, 104 
Free treatment of Scripture, 133, 147, 
238, 258, 262, 284 

Games, 176 

Geography, ancient, n, 13 
Gothic, 268 

Greek, 83, 85, 86, 97, 104, 119, 131, 
132, 160, i.74, 181, 183, 193, 194, 
195, 198, 199, 226, 243, 251, 252, 
266 

Greek influence, 174 

Hebrew ideals, 286 
Hebrew language, 19, 75, 83, 86, 100, 
132, 176, 181, 183, 193, 199, 203, 
243, 246, 247, 265, 267, 290 
Hebrews in Egypt, 185 
Hellenism, 193 
Hieroglyphic, 160 
High places, 61, 66, 179 
High priest, 70, 137, 228 
Hinduism, 207, 308, 314 
Holiness, law of, 128, 147 
Houses, 175 

Human sacrifice, 39, 64, 179 
Hymns, 87, 89, 94, 96, 99, 126, 134, 
136, 205 

Ideals of Jesus, 315 


336 






Index 


T~T- T T T-TT ^ T T w w , a w^r ^r r^r^r " ^r ▼ w w 


Ideals of the Prophets, 40, 140, 142, 
144, 146 

Inscriptions, 160, 162, 163, 164, 242 
Inspiration, 208, 213, 217, 264, 279, 
280, 281, 282, 284, 287, 288, 290, 
3io, 311 

Intermarriage, 190, 191, 203 
Israel’s spirit, 152 
Italian, 183 

Jewish contributions, 184 
Jewish influence in Palestine, 197 
Jewish literature, 198 
Jews, treatment of, 202, 203 
Judaism, 41, 76, 96, 181, 192, 193, 
194, 195, 200, 216 
Justification by faith, 238 

Khirbehs, 168 
Kufic, 116 

Larger Bible, the, 240, 241, 245 
Latin, 267, 273 
Legend, 245 
Literary criticism, 149 
Loss of archaeological material, 152, 
153 

“ Lost books,” 242, 243 

Magic, 30, 90 
Manuscripts, 246 
Messianic hopes, 195, 231 
Messianism, 136 
Minoan civilization, 165 
Miracle, in, 121, 225, 254, 286, 289 
Monotheism, 41, 157, 191 
Museum in Jerusalem, 171 
Music, 87, 260 

Musical instruments, 30, 87, 92 
Mythology, 22, 102, 104, 115 

Nature deities, 207 
Neolithic, 172 

Palestine culture, 173, 174, 176, 177 
Parables, 102, 106, 116 
Plagues, 161 

Poetry, 21, 134, 135, 136, 193, 206, 
207 

Population of Palestine, 198 


Pottery, 154, 165, 171, 174, 177 
Prediction, 114, 117, 118, 120, 124, 
197, 286 

Priest Code, 63, 65, 70, 74, 147, 187, 
190 

Prophecy, 28, 117, 126, 193 
Prophetic ideals (see Ideals of the 
Prophets) 

Proselytes, 194, 200 
Ptolemaic, 178 

Racial integrity, 182, 183, 195 
Relation of Hebrews and Jews, 183, 
184, 196 
Reservoirs, 176 

Revision, 133, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 
140, 141, 144, 147, 148, 190, 293, 
310 

Riddles, 20 
Roman influence, 178 
Romances, 102 

Sacred sites, 167 
Sacrifice, 64, 179, 192, 312 
Sanitation, 176 
Shrines, 178 
Synoptic, 227 

Tabu, 64 
Tells, 168 
Tombs, 177 

Tools and weapons, 172, 173 
Tradition, 22, 102, 104, 120, 147, 249, 
257, 262 

Translation, 149, 199, 266, 267, 268, 
270, 271, 273, 274 
Turkish regime, 162, 164, 167 

Uncial manuscripts, 251, 252, 253 

Value of the Bible, 240 
Vision, 116, 122 

Walls, 175 
Water supply, 176 
Worship, 34, 145 

Yiddish, 184 


—337 



















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